Ethiopia’s
first organized commodities market is to be housed in the left wing
of the building in the picture, owned by Alsam Plc, a company whose
major shares are held by Saber Argaw. The buildings, located on
Smuts Street, near Mexico Square, were estimated to cost close to 50
million Br, according to sources. The ground and the first floors
are already occupied by Dashen and United banks, while the Ministry
of Agriculture and Rural Development has recently leased the middle
two floors, with a total size of 1,000sqm, for nearly one million
Birr a year. Far from the traditional coffee market that has a
resemblance of organization – barely modern with its one personal
computer – the Ethiopian Commodities Exchange (ECEX) will have fully
automated operation, putting a large electronic billboard indexing
prices on a daily basis. Coffee, sesame, haricot beans from cash
crops and teff, wheat and maize from
The world’s
largest fertiliser manufacturing firm, YARA, is dominating the
supply of fertiliser in the current Ethiopian fiscal year.
A latest public
tender for the procurement of 75,000tn of DAP will be supplied by
YARA should the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MoARD)
award the contract to the two companies that made an appearance to
the tender’s opening session on Thursday, November 16, 2006.
It was the first
time a procurement was conducted by the Ministry, unlike before when
a national committee under the auspices of the National Bank of
Ethiopia (NBE) handled it.
In an unusual move, a man of
the judiciary has been appointed to advise a senior official in the executive
branch, causing critics to raise an issue of conflict of interest within the
Ethiopian state.
With his
return from a year of study in England, the President of the Federal High Court,
Wubishet Kibru, 35, has been appointed to serve as one of Minister of Trade and
Industry Girma Birru's advisors. He has been assigned to the job beginning
November 1, 2006, by Justice Kemal Bedri, president of the Supreme Court.
The
executive branch wanted Wubishet's service in the face of major
international and regional trade negotiations the country is poised
to enter: negotiations with member countries of the World Trade
Organization (WTO), and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa (COMESA).
Last week, the
World Bank country office in Addis Abeba advised Ethiopian
authorities in the ministries of Water Resources, and Finance and
Economic Development, as well as managers of the Ethiopian Electric
Power Corporation (EEPCo) to watch out for Lahmeyer International, a
German consulting firm with solid presence in Ethiopia, when they
award projects financed by its funds.
This was followed
by a decision made at the headquarters in Washington DC, barring
Lahmeyer from any World Bank financed projects anywhere in the world
for seven years, although good behaviour and cooperation in further
investigation would bring this down to three years.
During United Bank’s eighth shareholders’ General Assembly, which
was held at the Addis Abeba Hilton Hotel last week, three out of the
nine members of the Board of Directors were replaced. The Bank also
announced that it had made its highest net profit ever at 43.6
million Br.
During the Assembly, which took place on November 9, 2006, three of
the board members were replaced while the remaining six were
re-elected to serve another three years. The replaced board members
were Gizachew Negash who did not want to run for another term,
Tsehaye Feleke and Ayele Belachew.
Molasses
Exports Blocked to Support Liquor Industry
The Ministry of
Trade and Industry (MoTI) has ordered two of the three state owned
sugar factories to cut their molasses export by half and supply the
local liquor industry that was on the brink of closure.
A letter signed
by Minister Girma Birru two weeks ago told officials at the Sugar
Development Agency (SDA), a federal agency created to coordinate
production and marketing of sugar from the three factories, to
divert up to 37,000tn of molasses to the two liquor factories that
are using the by-product, and dairy farms.
Dashen Bank,
which has secured its spot as the number one private bank in profit
for the fiscal year of 2005-2006, has selected HaileGebriel Consult
as winner for the design the company did for the Bank’s
headquarters, which will be built in Addis Abeba.
On November 9,
2006, Dashen announced its annual net profit for the year as being
133.6 million Br. During the dinner it hosted at the Sheraton, the
Bank also announced the winner of its headquarters design. Choosing
between designs submitted by Saba Engineering and HaileGebriel
Consult, the latter was picked and awarded a 50,000Br cash prize for
its work.
Conciliatory
TOTAL Director Replaced after Promotion
Total International Ltd has promoted Mauritania-national Lamine
Kane, managing director of Total Ethiopia for the past 15 months, to
the company’s headquarters in France and replaced him with
Frenchman, Bernard Lacaze.
The new appointee arrived in Ethiopia
on November 4, 2006 and officially received the position on Friday
November 17. Lacaze had been working in China for the past five
years. Kane left the country yesterday to take up his new position
at the Paris headquarters.
Fasika Kebede,
former vice president of Finance at the state owned Commercial Bank
of Ethiopia (CBE), has joined the oldest humanitarian organization
in the country, the Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS), as its 14th
secretary-general, after the position was left for the acting
secretary general, pretty much of EPRDF rule.
Tabor Herbs Plc, the second herb company to be established in
Ethiopia after Jordan River Herbs Plc, has begun exporting different
samples of herbs to Europe and South Africa.
So far, the company has exported a total of around 4,005kg of sample
herbs from August to October to the Netherlands, Germany, the United
Kingdom and South Africa, making a total of 15,568 Br.
Ethiopian
Quality and Standards Authority (EQSA) is in the process of doubling
its working hours so as to hasten the processing of items coming
into Ethiopia.
Sources
informed Fortune that the Authority intends to increase its
working hours from the standard eight to 16 at its Addis Abeba
branches at the Bole Airport and La Gare. EQSA intends to implement
these new hours in the coming two months.
Industry
observers say Almaz Mogus has taken a hot seat at Nile, a company
that is struggling to recover from its heavy servicing of expanding
claims, mainly on motor insurance, incurred during its operation in
2005/06.
Almaz Mogus,
former deputy head of United Insurance, has become the first woman
in the Ethiopian insurance industry to claim the highest position of
the corporate ladder. She was appointed as chief executive officer
of Nile Insurance, beginning September 21, 2006.
In order to
finally achieve the development of industrial zone plans long left
unfulfilled, the Addis Abeba Caretaker Administration launched a
Committee that will oversee preparation of the land concerned; a
budget of 150 million Br has been allocated.
The Committee
will manage the four zones created since 2001: Bole Jamo, Bole Lemi,
Kilinto and the freight terminal in Akaki Kaliti District. It will
prepare the total 587ht of land for allocation as well as introduce
the necessary infrastructure needed before companies can conceivably
settle there.
Zelealem Family
Plc, owner of the Millifoglie Bar, Restaurant and Pastry is
preparing for the festivities surrounding the Ethiopian Millennium
and the expected visit of thousands of Diaspora Ethiopians and
foreign tourists, by converting a 10-storey building into a hotel.
The building,
located behind the Beserate Gabriel church in Nefas Silk-Lafto
District, on the way from Sar Bet to the residence of the secretary
of the African Union, was previously home to the company’s own
Everest International School and Millifoglie Bar and Restaurant.
Four years ago,
the Ethio-American Trade and Investment Council invited an Ethiopian
delegation led by then Minister of Trade and Industry, Kasahun Ayele,
currently Ambassador to Berlin, to visit four different American
states and explore Ethiopian cultural exhibition possibilities. On
the Houston leg of the visit, the team sat down in a Mexican
restaurant and began seriously envisioning a wide-ranging exhibit
that could attract millions of people, one that would include a
six-year loan of Lucy, Ethiopia’s beloved fossil. According to Dirk
Van Tuerenhout, PhD Curator of Anthropology at the Houston Museum of
Natural Science, Lucy will be the real star for his museum’s
visitors when the show opens just under a year from now. But are the
benefits worth the risks?
Tamrat G. Giorgis, FORTUNE STAFF WRITER, sat down with Dr.
Tuerenhout to find out.
