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Ethiopia’s newly formed accreditation office, the Ethiopian National Accreditation Office, has received applications from five laboratories in Addis Ababa. ENAO will evaluate the laboratories and assess if they are able to meet the standards set by it.

ENAO accreditation means third party attestation that a laboratory has demonstrable competence to carry out its task said Genet Gebremedhin, Accreditation Director with ENAO.

In the past Ethiopian laboratories had to receive accreditation from international agencies from countries such as Germany and South Africa at a great deal of expense.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) confirms the Ethiopia's airports are free from security threats. This announcement follows a rigorous security audit conducted by ICAO.

Ethiopia’s annual production of cement has reached 12.12 million tons, more than double the current domestic demand, Ministry of Industry disclosed. Ethiopia’s current domestic demand for cement is estimated to be around 5.4 million tons, according to data from the Ministry.

“Due to the construction boom and country’s rapid growth we expect the annual demand for cement to grow,” Melaku Taye, public relations and communications director at MoI, told Walta Information Center.

The National Bank of Ethiopia has been engaged in efforts to stabilize the market and foreign currency exchange rate in the past seven months said Teklewold Atnafu, Governor of the bank.

The bank has initiated a range of activities to maintain an effective financial system to contribute to the national economic growth said Teklewold in the performance report he presented to the House of People’s Representatives.

The central bank has put into effect various monetary policies to lower inflation and stabilize the market in the previous months he said.

Ethiopia’s efforts to restructure its sovereign debt have hit a roadblock after negotiations with private bondholders ended without agreement, deepening uncertainty over the country’s only international bond.