2merkato

The Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE) approved last Tuesday a 1.52 billion birr loan to Habesha Cement.

The company had sought from the bank 70 percent of the fund it need for setting up a cement factory in the country.

The bank is currently drafting the loan agreement and it is expected that the parties will sign the deal next week.

The annual production capacity of Habesha’s first factory is projected to be 1.4 million tonnes of cement a year, according to Mesfin Abi, CEO of the company.

Areas of interest include real estate, mining, manufacturing, healthcare and agro-industry.

Ethiopians living in the United States are going to discuss the existing investment opportunities in Ethiopia at a conference to be held in Washington DC.

The conference, under the theme "Collaborative Investing by the Diaspora", is scheduled to take place on Saturday October 8 at the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel.  

The conference is a half a day U.S. private-sector-led initiative. The organisers expect about 300 people to attend the meeting.

The Ethiopian Airlines said it had changed its plan to purchase Bombardier aircraft.

It was reported last week that the airlines was holding talks with representatives of Bombardier, the Canadian airframer, for the purchase of additional Q400 aircraft which are known for less emission and noise.

Tewolde Gebremariam, CEO of Ethiopian said that after a series of managerial meetings the airlines had decided to conduct a market study to determine what type of aircraft it needs to buy and how many.

A centre of excellence for freight logistics, Ethiolog, was established yesterday at the Addis Ababa University.

The centre will make the freight transport and logistics efficient and cost effective, Getachew Mengiste, Minister of State for Transport, said.

Ethiolog is expected to create a joint forum for higher learning institutions, government offices and the private sector to work together. And it will be entrusted with conducting research to address problems in the transport sector.

Allana Potash announced yesterday that it intersected high-grade potash mineralization in hole DK-11-27 on its 154,000-hectare property in the Nequen province of Ethiopia.

Assays from this hole returned 37.7 percent potassium chloride, or potash, over 3.45 metres at a depth of 159.9 metres. It also intersected 17.41 percent potash over 13.0 metres at a depth of 163.35 metres, and at a depth of 259.23 metres, the hole intersected 7.67 metres grading 23.05 percent potash.

Ethiopian Potash Corp. announced that it had completed nine holes, and was currently drilling the tenth hole of its ongoing exploration program.

The company said that all of the holes had intersected the regional Danakil potash formation, and all holes intersected potash mineralization.

The holes were drilled along the western edge of the Danakil and targeted the on-strike continuation of the Musley potash deposit about 10 km south of the company's SW discovery area.

Two Indian leather development institutions said they were determined to make Ethiopia one of the top 10 countries in the world in shoe and leather manufacturing in three to five years.

Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) and the Footwear Design and Development Institute (FDDI), Indian government institutions, are going to work with the Ethiopian Leather Industry Development Institute (ELIDI).

The Indian institutions said they would transfer technology and help accelerate the growth of earnings from Ethiopia's leather and leather products export.

Karel Electronics of Turkey signed an agreement on Monday with View Computer Engineering, an Ethiopia IT company, to work in partnership and to sell Karel’s IT products in Ethiopia.

It was pointed out during the signing of the agreement that in the long run the Turkish company might start assembling its products here and that the agreement could pave the way for such a venture.

The Ethiopian Shipping Lines Share Company announced that it had finalised preparations to buy nine new ships for 300 million dollars this fiscal year.

Out of the nine ships, seven will transport dry cargo while two will carry oil, Ambachew Abraha, managing director of Ethiopian Shipping Lines, said.

Ambachew said that loans from the China Exim bank will cover 80 percent of the price of the ships while the balance will come from the Commercial bank of Ethiopia.

The Documents Authentication and Registration Office said that it would introduce online attorney registration for clients through its official website as of this week. The scheme is scheduled to be launched tomorrow.

Until now clients had to visit the notary office for the authentication of legal documents. It is expected that the new registration management system will do away with the necessity of such visits except for notarisation.

The office is installing the online registration system in all of its branches.