2merkato

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation announced that the African Development Bank is going to finance the construction of Geba Dam and the construction of power transmission lines from Ethiopia to Kenya.

The corporation had requested the bank to directly supply 230 million dollars of the estimated 1.3 billion dollar cost of the transmission line, but the bank has not yet decided how much of the cost it is going to cover.

Ethiopia and Kenya had signed a memorandum of understanding for the construction of the transmission line in May 2006. The proposed bipolar, 1070 km long, 500KV line will originate from Welayta Sodo in the south of Ethiopia and terminate at Longonot, Kenya.

The Ministry of Industry accepted last week a proposal by the Ethiopian Textile and Garment Manufacturers Association to lift excise tax and to lower custom duty tax on imported textiles.

Late in August, a new study had proposed that the 10 percent excise tax imposed on imported textile products be lifted.

The study also suggested that separate taxes be imposed on finished and partially finished textile products replacing the indiscriminate 35 percent tax.

The Ministry of Industry announced that it would ban the export of crusted leather as of December 2011 due to price hikes and the scarcity of supplies.

The ban aims to control the price hike of hides and skins in the market, and as a result force out the middle men who speculate on prices according to Berhanu Serjabo, director of corporate communication of the Leather Industry Development Institute under the ministry.

Zemen Bank’s net profit doubled from 29 million birr to 63.5 million birr in the last fiscal year.

Zemen Bank disbursed 633.7 million birr in loans to its customers. Loans to medium and long-term projects amounted to 53 percent of the total loans disbursed.

Although the bank increased loans disbursed to its customers by 67.6 percent, its loan-to-deposits ratio remained at 55 percent, the same as that of the year before. 

The amount of the loan is estimated to be around 1.45 billion dollars.

The airlines placed orders for 10 Dreamliners in 2005 valued at 1.5 billion dollars. Originally, deliveries were scheduled for 2008-2010, which Boeing failed to meet. Now Ethiopian expects to receive the first two of ten Dreamliners next March which it ordered in 2005.

Allana Potash said yesterday that it had intersected potash mineralization in Holes 24, 25 and 26 at shallow depths in the south-western portion of its land position in Ethiopia.

In addition to previous holes completed by Allana, holes 24, 25 and 26 form a region of potash mineralization which occurs at depth between 75 and 200 metres below surface, Farhad Abasov, President and CEO of Allana said.  

“Allana management believes that the potash in this region may be amenable to mining by open pit methods and future studies will focus on this potential,” Abasov said.

Energoinvest, the largest Bosnian engineering group, and the Ethiopian government signed 45 million dollar contract this week for the building of 150 kilometres of electric power transmission lines.

The works are scheduled to be completed in two years according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The contract was signed by Meheret Debebe, general manager of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation and Dzemal Vlahovljak, general manager of Energoinvest.

Energoinvest won the contract on July 21.

Ethiopia's year-on-year inflation jumped to 40.6 percent in August from 39.2 percent in July as food prices, especially those of cereals went up, the Central Statistical Agency said on Tuesday. 

Early in August, the agency had said that Ethiopia’s inflation rate climbed to 39.2 percent in July from a year earlier.

Inflation accelerated from 38.1 percent in June, according to the agency. Food prices increased by 47.4 percent in July after rising 45.3 percent in the previous month, while the cost of non-food items fell from 27.9 percent to 27.8 percent, it said.

The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) accepted offers last week from three European companies which responded to the bank’s desire to print 50 birr and 100 birr notes.

The bank wants to order the printing of notes with a total value of 52 billion birr to replace all-in notes under circulation. It will be the largest order ever, more than 90 percent of what it had printed last year.

Sugar Corp., a state-owned sugar producer, said that it was building ten new factories and was inviting private investment as part of a plan to become one of the world's 10 biggest exporters of the crop.

The project involves constructing plants and establishing farms at a cost of about 4.6 billion dollars in four regions of the country, Abay Tsehaye, director general of the company, said last week.

Abay said that Ethiopia hopes to become one of the top 10 exporters of sugar in the coming 15 years.