2merkato

It may Exceed 10 Percent - Deputy Prime Minister

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Ethiopian economic growth may exceed 10 percent contrary to the International Monetary Fund's prediction on May 31 that it would fall from 7.5 percent this year to 6 percent in the 2011/2012 fiscal year, Hailemariam Desalegn, deputy prime minister of Ethiopia, said yesterday. IMF had said that the country's monetary policy was pushing up inflation which, combined with restrictions on bank lending, would in turn bring about a slower economic growth.

Hailemariam said that expansion would not drop below 9 percent in the fiscal year to 7 July 2012, from 11.4 percent this year. The economy has expanded an average of 11 percent over the past seven years according to IMF data.

According to the deputy prime minister, this year's sharp increase in inflation is the result of global food and fuel price hike and not loose monetary policy. He said that the price of oil had risen due to the current unrest in the Middle East and when that problem is solved, the price would go down. Therefore, he said, the problem Ethiopia is facing is only temporary.

The inflation rate jumped to 29.5 percent in April from 25 percent a month earlier as food prices increased, the Central Statistical Agency said on May 10. And according to IMF, broad money-supply growth was 35 percent at the end of March, which had previously projected growth of 22 percent in money supply this fiscal year.

Source: Bloomberg.com

Ten African entrepreneurs to be honoured

Thursday, 9 June 2011

For the first time this year, since its foundation in 2007, Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship, is open to applicants from countries all over the continent, Omidyar Network, a philanthropic investment firm and Legatum, a private international investment group, said Wednesday.

Profitable, growing enterprises whose earnings are about one million dollars to 15 million dollars a year are expected to win 100,000 dollars and five other companies will receive awards of 50,000 dollars each.

In its fourth successful year, the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship honours and rewards African business leaders who have demonstrated the entrepreneurial spirit and embodied the qualities needed to be successful in business. The Award evaluates applicants on important points like profitability, return on investment and growth; investment in employees; long-term business strategy; culture, values and leadership; innovation to address market needs and contribution to the community.

This year's award follows on the success of last year's programme which accepted more than 2,700 applications from 15 countries as well as 18 different industry sectors. The 2010 awards event was attended by 250 business leaders and influencers. And it saw ten finalists selected from Ethiopia, Botswana, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and South Africa.

When it was founded four years ago, the Africa wards for Entrepreneurship programme had accepted only five countries but it has now grown to including all countries of the continent. The announcement of this year's Africa Awards coincides with the publication of a report on entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa by the Legatum Institute, the publishers of the 110-country Global Prosperity Index. The report says that entrepreneurs are the "enablers of growth" who break down economic barriers and social constraints and that entrepreneurship and access to opportunity are by far the most highly correlated indicators of a nation's overall prosperity. The Gala Awards banquet on December 8 in Nairobi will be preceded by an inaugural high-profile, one-day conference on entrepreneurship, Convergence: Africa, headlined by a globally-recognised champion of entrepreneurship.

This year's Africa Awards will honour ten finalists and winners in the presence of an international audience of leading business people, investors, policymakers, and entrepreneurs.

Source: The Botswana Gazette

Thursday, 9 June 2011

Ashegoda Wind Farm, the first of its kind in Ethiopia, is going to start projection of the first megawatt of electricity in July according to Jean-Christophe Belliard, the Ambassador of France to Ethiopia, who has been closely following the project.

The wind farm will have an installed capacity to generate 120 megawatt of electricity.

Believed to be the biggest wind farm in sub-Saharan Africa, the wind farm project is to be completed in three phases. The first of the project's three phases, according to the ambassador, will be fully completed by September and connected to the national grid with an installed capacity of 30 megawatt of electricity.

The construction of the wind farm project is in progress in Ashegoda, 20 km south west of Mekelle, the capital of the Tigray Regional State. Vergnet Group, the French turbine manufacturer and developer of wind farm, is commissioned to undertake the construction of the farm project at a cost of 210 million euro.

For various reasons, the project had been going slow when it started but now it is moving fast, the ambassador said.

The ambassador said that the wind farm was equipped with the kind of technology that makes it possible to tone down the wind mill just by pressing a button when a bad storm is coming.

By the time the project is fully completed in February 2013, it will have 120 GEV-HP 1 megawatt twin-blade tilting rotor turbines installed.

Source: Walta Information Centre

A factory which manufactures PP Bags, built by the Becho-Weliso Farmers' Cooperative Union at a cost of 21.7 million birr, was inaugurated on Sunday, 5 June 2011 in Tulu-Bolo. The Factory has created job opportunity for 179 people.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony President Girma Wolde-Giorgis urged members of union and the surrounding community to exploit the natural potential of the area. The President also underlined the importance of the PP Bags factory in meeting the needs of the farmers and the demands of other agro-processing unions for bags.  

The president noted that the area was more suitable for wheat production (which had not yet been exploited properly) than other kinds of crop. Farm lands in the area are divided into small plots which, when merged and worked on with mechanized farming, could produce greater yield.

Yaregal Ayisheshum, director general of the Federal Cooperative Agency, said strengthening cooperatives was one of the development strategies being implemented to reduce poverty. The number of cooperative unions all over the country taking pat in developmet activities has now reached about 245.    

Dejene Hirpha, manager of the union said that the unionwhose capital was 140,000 birr when it was founded in 2000, had now grown to 33 million birr.  

It has been participating in the provision of agricultural inputs and credit, purchase and sale of crops, distribution of basic commodities, social services and other activities. The union has earned more than 1.8 million birr in the current fiscal year.  

Moreover, Dejene pointed out that the union was planning to run mechanized irrigation development to utilize underground and surface water in the area.  

Source: Ethiopian Press Agency

Fails to reach the original target

Ethiopia has earned about 78 million dollars from leather and leather products exported over the last ten months of the current fiscal year. And as this fiscal year comes to an end, the total earnings are expected to be 100 million birr. About the beginning of the current fiscal year, the government had planned to earn 200 million dollars from the export of leather and leather products. Half way through the fiscal year, however, the government lowered its projection to 120 million dollars as the entrance into the export market of new leather producers was delayed. This has brought about the failure of the Ethiopian leather industry to meet its second target for 2010/11.

Short supplies of skin and raw hide and rising prices are blamed for the failure to meet targets according to Brhanu Sergebo, corporate communication head of Leather Industry Development Institute (LIDI). The government is offering to solve the shortage problem by allowing a duty free import of raw hide and skin. Experts in the leather industry, however, think that under performance is due to falling demand in the international market while local tanneries say that the price of raw hide and skin are skyrocketing because of demand by large foreign owned tanneries which started production over the last few months. Moreover, they say that the either the country has to switch from crust products to finished leather products or its export profits may go on failing to meet targets.

The government has targeted to earn half a billion dollars from leather and leather products exports by 2015 and it is planning to impose a heavy tax on crust export in the 2011/2012 fiscal year to stimulate an increase in the more profitable export of finished leather and leather products. In addition, the government has banned new investors from joining the industry with the intention of controlling the supply shortage. At present there are 25 tanneries in operation in the country.

Source: Capital

Ethiopian Potash Corp's drilling rigs are in the process of being commissioned and are expected to start operation in a week's time, George Roach, board chairman said last week during an event in which Robert J. Metcalfe was assigned the new director of the corporation while Wally Rudensky resigned from the board of directors.

Mr. Metcalfe is expected to bring to the board of directors his broad experiences of serving on the board of several natural resources companies such as Central Patricia Gold Mines Limited and Iron Bay Trust Inc.

Praising the departing board member, George Roach said that the change was in accordance with the corporation's declared plan of moving forward from the transitional phase of listing of the company to a fully operational phase calculated to boost shareholder value through exhaustive exploration and resource development. In this regard, he said that the company's drilling rigs were in the process of being commissioned and were expected to be "turning" within the week.

Ethiopian Potash Corp. (EPC) is a Canadian company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The company has filed a NI 43-101 report compiled by Ercosplan, the recognised authority on the Danakil Depression, that identifies a NI 43-101 compliant inferred resource of 128 million tonnes grading 21 percent KCL. Ercosplan recommends a 15,000 metre diamond drilling program to further define and expand the known resource; this program is scheduled to start before the end of this month and will provide the basis for a scoping study and subsequent feasibility scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of this year, a significant step on EPC's path to production.

The Danakil Depression in northern Ethiopia contains one of the largest undeveloped potash resources in the world. The fact that it lays almost on the surface of the ground as opposed to the potash deposits in Saskatchewan which occur at depths greater than one kilometre testifies to its significance. Ethiopian Potash Corp has two neighbouring development concessions covering 481 sq km in the center of the Danakil Depression.

Source: Press Release Ethiopian Potash Corp

The Ethiopia Automated Transfer System (EATS) was launched on 27 May 2011. It will be introduced in banks all over the country early this week according to Getahun Nana, vice governor of National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE). Almost all banks have already finalized their automation and are in the process of networking their branches.

The EATS will set up a modern national payment system which facilitates bank large volume money transfer among banks and interface with the retail payment system. While the large sum transfer is mostly the responsibility of central banks, the private sector could handle the retail transfer once it proves competent.

The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology signed an agreement with Global Communication Solutions for electronically facilitating unified payment of monthly telephone, electric and water bills. The system would help save time and labour.

Dr. Ahmed, GCS’s CEO, said that his organization was working with the government to address overdue billing problems. He said the agreement would be effective within three years after six months probation period.

The first phase of the system will be applied in 42 service rendering institutions of Addis Ababa while the second phase will be applied in Adama, BahirDar, Hawassa and Makalle.

Delegates from Ethiopian Electric and Power Corporation, Ethio-Telecom, Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority attended the event.

Source: ENA

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted lower economic growth at 6 percent for Ethiopia in the 2011/12 fiscal year. Led by Mr. Paul Mathieu the IMF mission made the prediction at the conclusion of its 12-day discussions for the 2011 Article IV Consultation in Addis Ababa on May 30.

The mission met with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Sufian Ahmed, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Teklewold Atnafu, Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), other senior officials, and representatives of the private sector, the international community, and civil society.

Addis Ababa - CIO magazine of the International Data Group (IDG) declared Wednesday that the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) had been named CIO 100 winner for the 24th annual award programme.

The award programme honours obusiness companies throughout the world for demonstrating an oustanding performance in operational and strategic excellence in information technology.

ECX was selected through a three-step process to be recognized a winner of the CIO 100 award. The selection process involves companies applying online listing their efforts in the creative use of information technology and business programs. Then, a group of judges evaluates the companies according to their merits. And finally, based on the judges' recommendations CIO editors select the honourees.