The Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE), Mamo Mihretu, announced that the government would continue to take firm legal measures against illegal entities operating in the parallel foreign exchange market, particularly those whose activities distort normal market operations.
National Bank of Ethiopia has inked an agreement with Afreximbank, the continental import-export bank, to collaborate on trade and investment, as well as job creation and poverty reduction.
The National bank of Ethiopia is to hire a consultant to support its plans to prepare a regulatory framework for the launch of 
mobile and agent banking services in the country.
The technology is expected to be helpful but it prudent to be careful in regards to security issues before implementing a new system said an official with the Banking Supervision Directorate of the NBE.
The central bank will be hiring a consultant with a view towards such security concerns and to enable it to create a document that will enable the bank to supervise the use of the new services said the source.
The National Bank of Ethiopia is to oversee all foreign currency requests. The bank will manage applications for foreign 
currency through Letter of Credit or other transfer requests to best allocate limited foreign exchange resources it was said.
The move to take over the management of all foreign exchange by commercial bank is said to follow a recent shortage of hard currency that is inhibiting the flow of import activities. Importers have been forced to wait for extended periods of time for approval of their foreign currency requests leading to allegations of abuse by bank officials according to sources.
The central bank took charge of giving final approval following these charges of mismanagement.
Roads Authority Requests 20 bln birr
Monday, 13 June 2011
The budget earmarked for the 2011/12 fiscal year is over 100 billion birr, sources at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development (MoFED) said. The draft budget proposal was scheduled for submission to the council of ministers last week.
The 2011/2012 budget is 20 billion birr more than the current fiscal year's budget.
About 45 billion birr of the total is set aside for regional states as a budget subsidy which was allocated by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. The regional states will use 70 percent of their share of the budget for road construction projects to connect 18,000 districts throughout the country except those in Dire Dawa and Addis Ababa.
The road construction in the districts is estimated to cover about 76,000 kilometres, the Ethiopian Roads Authority, which was entrusted to survey the projects, has in and of itself requested a budget of 20 billion birr from the federal government. If the request is granted, about 50 billion birr will be spent on road construction alone in the coming fiscal year.
About 35.9 billion out of the current fiscal year's budget of 77.2 billion birr went to capital projects while 24.2 billion was allotted as budget subsidy for regional states, and 17.6 billion was set aside for ordinary expenses. However, an additional seven billion birr was approved when finances ran short in the middle of the year.
Source: The Reporter
