Bunna International Bank Plc was officially inaugurated on Monday, November 9, 2009, with a ceremony held at the Hilton, attended by Tadesse Haile, state minister for Trade and Industry  shareholders, and other invited guests. Bunna has raised the number of private banks in the country to twelve.

The bank was licensed by the National Bank of Ethiopia on February, 27, 2009, according to Abebaw Zewude, promotion and public relations officer. It was engaged in logistic preparations until it opened its doors to customers on October 10, 2009, with two branches at Arat Kilo and Haya Hulet Mazoria areas.

It was announced that the bank had achieved a registered capital of 312 million Br and a paid-up capital of 160 million Br.

Two more branches will open at Mesalemia and Merkato, with two more outside Addis Abeba - one in Nekemte in the Oromia Regional State and another in Mekelle, Tigray.

The ninth edition of the Great Ethiopian Run is set to take place next Sunday, November 22, 2009. Sporting two record numbers: the largest number of participants, totaling 33,000 people; and the largest number of participants coming from abroad.

This year's event is part of a fundraising campaign under the motto, "I am running for a child," according to coordinators.

The organizers reported having already gathered 320,000 Br as of November 11, 2009 which will given to two organizations that work with children affected by HIV in Dire Dawa and Adama (Nazaret).

In keeping up with its tradition of hosting athletes of international acclaim, this year's guest is Paula Radcliffe with her 17 years of international career experience.

No stranger to Radcliffe who is expected to arrive next week, the Ethiopian public will have the opportunity to witness her perform, and run along side her on her first visit to Ethiopia.

TV networks including BBC, CNN, Eurosport, Supersport and ESPN are scheduled to cover the race.

Moreover, the organizers revealed that owing to the introduction of an online registration system, this year's race has assembled a record number of over 200 participants from abroad with large groups coming from London, Dublin, Leipzig, Sweden and Norway.

This 10km road race was originated by the current marathon world record holder, Haile Gebresilassie, in 2001 as an independent NGO with the mission of staging athletic competitions with mass-participation in Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) inaugurated coffee quality certification centres and warehouses in Gimbi and Bedelle towns of the Oromia Regional State on Tuesday, November 10, 2009.

The inauguration was part of a programme set by ECX to inaugurate seven warehouses across the country, two of which have already been operating in Jimma and Hawassa towns.

The inauguration ceremony was attended by Yakob Yala, state minister of Agriculture and Rural Development and Mohammed Nur Abachibsa, head of Office for Oromia Regional State President.

ECX's warehouses are used for depositing, sampling and grading the commodities that are transacted through its system.

The depositor will be given an electronic warehouse receipt in order to legalize the ownership of the deposited commodity.

USAID announced a 40 million dollar grant to the Ministry of Health and the Oromia Regional State Health Bureau on November 12, 2009, to prevent and treat malaria. The grant will be channeled through United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF).

It is expected to increase access to effective diagnosis tests and medicines to manage malaria cases and promote household ownership and use of insecticide-treated bed-nets.
 

"Ethiopia is making great progress in scaling up malaria prevention and control intervention," Thomas H. Staal, mission director of USAID Ethiopia said.

"The key to saving lives is to expand proven approaches and interventions until they reach people at risk of the disease," he added.
 

Through UNICEF, USAID will procure and distribute 3.7 million rapid diagnostic tests for use by health staff and health extension workers. It will also distribute 9.4 million treatments of medicines to fully treat confirmed malaria infections in Oromia.

Ethiopia is one of the focus countries under US President Barak Obama's Malaria Initiative (PMI) which aims to reduce by half the number of malaria deaths in 15 African countries using proven malaria intervention, the written material explained.

Nyala Insurance S.C., one of the nine private insurance firms in Ethiopia has left the Association of Ethiopian Insurers in which all insurance companies in the country except the newly established Oromia Insurance are members.

Company officials, including Nahu-Senay Araya, CEO of the firm declined to comment on the issue.

Nahu-Senay had often been heard complaining that the size of the board, which included all CEOs of member companies, had made it impossible to make any decisions, and that the association had become ineffective, according to sources.

"We do not have any statement to make at this stage," Eyob Mehrete, deputy CEO of Nyala Insurance told Fortune.

However, the company has clearly stated its position in relation to the association in its annual report released in October 2009. The company called on CEOs of the industry to "...create an effective and empowered association" by reducing the number of board members, hiring a competent executive director, and creating budget appropriation to educate customers in order to increase the industry's revenue from general and life insurance.

Nahu-Senay had often complained loudly about these issues, which may be the reason why he took his company out of the association, industry sources said.

Transforming African infrastructure will require an additional 31 billion dollars a year, according to a study by the World Bank and African partners.

The report highlights the finding of a 24-country study and urges increased investment in four critical areas: energy, transport, water, and information and communications technology.

The study titled "Africa's Infrastructure: A Time for Transformation" shows that the poor state of infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa cuts national economic growth by two per cent every year and reduces business productivity by as much as 40pc.

However, the study says that in Ethiopia, infrastructure contributed 0.6pc to the nation's per capita gross domestic product growth during the last decade.

Ethiopia has made significant progress in air transport. It is home to one of Africa's three main major airlines and an associated transport hub.

Meaza Ashenafi (left), founder and former executive director of the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association, is now the chairperson of the committee which initiated the idea of starting a women's bank, currently under formation. Last Friday evening, November 13, 2009, the initiators invited prominent businesswomen to a consultation meeting held at the Belgium Embassy. Rahel Zewde, wife of Gunther Sleeuwangen, Belgian Ambassador to Ethiopia, is one of the ten women initiators who are involved in different business sectors. The initiators, who submitted their application to the National Bank of Ethiopia more than a week ago, are waiting for its approval to open a blocked account and start selling shares to the public. They expect the approval to come within a week or two.

The Ethio Poultry Expo was held at the Addis Abeba Exhibition Centre from November 4 to 6, 2009. The expo was organized by a Sudanese company, Expo Team Services Co. with an Ethiopian partner Prana Promotion. The organizers expressed their hope that the expo would be a springboard to attract international companies to enter the poultry markets in Ethiopia and other African countries. Culture and Tourism State Minister, Mahmoud Ahmed Gass, visited the expo where various poultry technologies were displayed.

The construction of the condominium houses of the Gergi site were completed six months ago. Since then, residents have started moving in. Nonetheless, the houses have no electricity and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) was only able to provide power to some of the residents. Consequently, residents with no access to power are sharing with those who have power by using cables which they have extended themselves. Some of the cables extend for 400 metres, Abebe Daneo, a resident, told Fortune. The cables cost about one Birr per metre and the selling residents could charge the buyers up to 50 Br for a month's share of electricity.