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Total Ethiopia inaugurated its first solar powered fuel station in Ethiopia on the 17th of December. The fuel station, found in Afar Regional Station, Djibouti Corridor, was refurbished for solar power use.

Total has been testing the fuel station after completing the outfitting of the fuel station for solar use. Tenesol, a subsidiary of the Total Group was charged with supplying the photovoltaic technology. The project was finalized by local partner, Vera International Business plc, at a cost of an estimated 1 million birr.

The Ministry of Agriculture plans to promote Ethiopia’s fish industry on the international market. Establishing a commercial aquaculture will require focused research and development, increased partnerships between hatcheries, feed suppliers, producers and researchers as well as more significant investment by the private sector said Dr. Harrison Charo-Karisa Director of the National Aquaculture Research Development Training Center.

Buna International Bank, Ethiopia has announced a gross profit of 26.8 million for the last fiscal year. The bank was able to net a profit of 19.4 million birr. Total Revenue generated by BIB for this fiscal year was 73.5% million birr.

The total assets of BIB increased, by 62.8%, to 781.4 million birr in the budget year that ended last June, while the paid capital of the bank increased, by 26.2% to 213.4 million accounting for 91.8% of the total capital and reserve of the Bank.

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange sold 92 seats, with full membership privileges, last week. The seats were sold at competitive bid held at the Wabi Shebelle Hotel. The exchange will earn 123,370,708.81 birr from the sale.

50 of the 92 full membership seats on offer were allocated to limited members and suppliers previously engaged in limited trading on the exchange. 66 bids were received for the 50 seats with the highest bid received from Ato Teklay Gebre-Mariam Gebre-Medhin for 2,000,150 birr. The lowest winning bid was 459,950 birr. The commodities exchange is expected to earn more than 42 million birr from the sale of the fifty seats.

A team from Airbus led by Mr. Francois Cognard, Vice President for sales, Middle East and North Africa, said to be promoting the Airbus A330 aircraft to Ethiopian Airlines, the flag carrier of Ethiopia, according to sources.

Aircraft manufacturers hold discussions with carriers as a matter of course said Cognard declining to comment on any ongoing negotiations between Airbus and Ethiopian Airlines.

The Addis Ababa  Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations, the powerful trade chamber in Ethiopia, re-elected Ayalew Zegeye as President of the Board of Directors. Vice President Abebaw Mekonnen was also reelected.

Ayalew Zegeye was re-elected as the only finalist left in the final round. The committee in charge of the nomination process started out with a field of 19 prospective presidential candidates.

The new directive which makes bulk container shipping mandatory for Ethiopian exporters has been met with opposition from international buyers.

The new shipping system replaces the 60 kilogram bags used to export coffee with one container size bag into which coffee is stored. Associations representing major importers from Germany and Switzerland wrote letters of complaint against the new bulk container shipping to their Embassies in Ethiopia, the Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Ethiopia has set a target to earn 359.3 million US dollars from the export of leather and textile in the coming year announced the Ministry of Industry.

It is expected that 206 million US dollars will be raised through the export of value added leather products according to Melaku Taye Corporate Communication Director at the Ministry.

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia announced reaching a 300 million US dollar credit arrangement with the Export-Import Bank of China. The money is to be used at the bank’s discretion said Yishak Mengesha, Chief Business Development Officer.

The details of the loan including interest rates are to be negotiated in the future according to Yishak.

Officials from Ethiopia and Kenya are working out the details for a power supply agreement. Ethiopia expects to supply Kenya with an initial 400 MW of electricity by the end of 2015.

Alemayehu Tegenu, Water and Energy Minister, is leading the Ethiopian delegation in discussions with Kenyan officials led by Kiraitu Murungi, Kenyan Energy Minister.