2merkato

Ethiopian coffee farmers must have business plan, audited income to be eligible for the loan. 

The Cooperative Bank of Oromia (CBO) is going to offer 60 million birr in loans to coffee farmers’ cooperatives through a risk sharing agreement it signed last month with Rabo Bank Foundation (a Netherlands based bank) and its sister company Rabo Rural Fund.

Through the agreement the CBO can extend loans to farmers for which Rabo will guarantee 50 percent of the loan if defaulted.

Coffee farmers who wish to benefit from the offer are expected to form a cooperative to be eligible, Wondemageghu Neger, president of the bank, said.

Awash International Bank (AIB), one of the private banks in Ethiopia, made a 510 million birr gross profit in the fiscal year to 8 July 2011, outdoing its previous year unaudited gross profit by 38.3 percent.

The performance is also 14 percent higher than the bank's internal plan.

In the same year, the paid up capital of the bank grew by 40 percent from 550 million birr to 734 million birr. This was done on the decision of shareholders to raise the bank's paid up capital to one billion birr within three years.

A new study 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 proposal was made following a study by the association of textile producers in collaboration with concerned government bodies.

Results of the study indicated that the association and the government had reached a common understanding that it was not right that all kinds of textile products should be taxed uniformly, Sleshi Lemma, director general of the Institute of Textile Industry, said.  

Ethiopian Airlines entered into a code share agreement last week with Asiana Airlines, the award winning South Korean airline, to enhance the growing cooperation with Star Alliance member carriers.

The Ethiopian Airlines said that the partnership between Ethiopian and Asiana would provide passengers of both airlines with greater flight options and better connections between Africa and Asia.

A delegation of about 30 Indian companies led by Karuturi, the world's largest flower producer, last week expressed interest in investing in the agro business sector in Ethiopia.

Indian companies have so far invested about 5.5 billion dollars and Karuturi said that the newly coming Indian investors would significantly push up the figure.

Karuturi is currently engaged in farming flower, palm oil, rice and maize on 100,000 hectares of land in the Gambella Regional State and Bako in the Eastern Wollega Zone of Oromia Region.

Eyesuswork Zafu, veteran insurer, said last week that he would retire within two months from his position as the CEO of United Insurance. He has been the CEO of the insurance company for the last 17 years.

Eyesuswork, who is also the president of the Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce and Sectoral Associations, has been considering retirement from the insurance company for the last three years.

He said that although he would retire soon, he would continue to serve the company in the capacity of a councillor and an advisor. “As personal connections still matter in the insurance industry, I will be there to assist the company’s business.”

The Ethiopian Minerals Development S.C (EMD) announced that it had earned 341.64 million birr from the sale of minerals at local and international markets last fiscal year, up by 177 percent from the previous fiscal year's revenue.

About 98 percent of the revenue was obtained from the sale of tantalum while the balance was generated from the sale of industrial minerals and services, Girmachew Asfaw, senior planner of the company, said.

EMD owns and manages the Kenticha Tantalum mine and it produces and exports tantalum concentrate from the Kenticha mine.  

Stratex International, the AIM-listed gold miner, reported that it had seen promising results from its current drilling programme at the Megenta hot spring epithermal gold prospect, in the Afar region of Ethiopia.

The company said that it had intersected a broad near-surface zone of 43.55 m grading at 0.67 g/t gold at Hole MG-DD-10 and promising grab samples have also been collected from the Akehil prospect about 9 km away from Megenta.

The Ministry of Mines announced Tuesday that it had secured more than 509 million dollars from the mining sector during in the last fiscal year.

The amount was secured from gold, tantalum and gemstone producing companies and traditional miners, Sinknesh Ejjigu, Minister of Mines, said.

It was reported in July that the Ministry of Mines had collected 104 million birr in royalty fees 98 million birr of which was paid by MIDROC Gold.

Allana Potash Corp. announced that it had awarded an Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Study (ESIA) on its Ethiopia potash project to Environmental Resources Management (ERM).

The ESIA is scheduled to be completed around August 2012 and will form an integral part of the feasibility study the company is planning to initiate shortly.

ERM has offices in 40 countries around the world and Allana's project will be coordinated out of South Africa.