Ethiopian farmers to export over 2,000 tons of fish to Sudan

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December 3, 2010 (ADDIS ABABA) – Some 200 fish farmers from Ethiopia’s Amhara region will supply 2,400 tons of fish to Sudan’s market, Ethiopia’s zonal agricultural and rural development office has said.

The fishermen from Alfa Taqusa district of North Gonder Zone are engaged in fish harvest from Lake Tana the source of the Blue Nile that also travels through Sudan.

According to the Zonal office, the fish farmers will earn 16.7 million Birr (just over $1 million) from the fish exports to Sudan. Last year the farmers union had earned USD 3.2 million from fish sales.

Ethiopia is a land locked country so its main fish resources are from lakes, rivers and reservoirs.

Although Ethiopia exports some of its farmed fish to countries like Sudan, the east African nation imports substantial amount of processed fish products. But in recent years fish cultivators have been encouraged to start large scale fish farming taking the advantage of investment incentives by government.

Studies indicate that the country has the potential to boost its annual fish production to over 49,000 tons per year possibly through the development of new constructed reservoirs, under-exploited river fisheries and aquaculture.

The country’s export performance report for 2009/2010 indicates that Sudan is continent’s highest importer of Ethiopia’s mainly agricultural products after to Somalia.

Last year, Sudan bought $115 million worth agricultural products from Ethiopia.

GIBE II SET TO RESUME PRODUCTION IN DAYS

Gilgel Gibe II, the hydro power plant which collapsed last February due to unforeseen accident only weeks after its official inauguration, is set to resume production in days. The maintenance work of the tunnel is already completed while the contractor, the same company which built the plant – the Italian-based Salini Construction – is undertaking clearance works, a senior official of the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) told The Reporter.

“The maintenance work has been finalized and duly inspected by Electro Consult, another Italian company hired by EEPCo to supervise the work,” the official said anonymously because he is not entitled to provide information to the press. “What remains is a minor clearance work and the damn will be ready to resume production in days.”


After finalizing the maintenance, Salini conducted inspection works throughout the 26-km-long tunnel, according to the official. “Fortunately, it is now time for the annual inspection of the plant and the company has taken advantage of the maintenance work to do the inspection as well,” the official said.

The plant suspended power generation in February when boulders broke into the 26 km long tunnel. The incident occurred at a spot 8,980 meters from the water outlet and 1300 meters beneath the mountain. The stretch of the tunnel boulders smashed into 15- meters long. About 1.3 km of the tunnel was inaccessible because of the rocks that blocked passage and trapped the water.

Built with a price tag of 374 million euros and having an installed capacity of 420 MW, Gibe II is presently the country’s biggest power plant. The project channels the water discharged from the Gilgel Gibe I dam through a long tunnel and a steep drop directly to the valley of the Omo River.


The project had been delayed by more than two years. When finalized,it was commissioned in a high-profile inauguration in January attended by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and Italian government officials.


Over a week from the inauguration, the project’s core component, the 26-km- long tunnel, collapsed shutting down operations for an extended period.

Enterprise to undertake 460 mln Birr expansion project at Bole Int’l Airport


Ethiopian Airports Enterprise (EAE) said it will undertake 460 million Birr expansion project at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport to increase the number of aircraft parking capacity to 43 from just 18 now.

EAE Public Relations Head, Wondim Teklu told ENA that the expansion project will be carried out on more than 80 hectares of land within the coming two years.Wondim said the expansion project will address the air traffic congestion due to the overwhelming increase in the number of international traffic.

He said the expansion will also help Ethiopian to accommodate the new Boeing aircrafts coming to the system.
The head said the increase in the international traffic shows that the Bole International Airport is increasingly becoming a preferred hub in the region.

Wondim said during the first phase of the project 15 parking areas would be constructed in this Ethiopian budget year while the remaining parking areas will be contracted in 2004 EC.The head said government will cover the full cost of the expansion project.

Bando!

Do you think anyone buys your "bread is raining over Ethiopia" fiction besides you and the likes of you?

New Development



No payment still for Ghion


The Privatization and Public Enterprises Supervising Authority (PPESA) has started the process of forming a joint company with ‘Prince’ Aklile Berhan Makonnen Hailesellasie that will manage the Ghion Hotel.
Wondafrash Assefa, Public Relation head of PPESA, says the process has started. “We expect the legal company registration process to be finalized in the near future,” he added. The new joint venture will start with an initial capital of 310 million dollar and will execute expansion projects inside the hotel’s compound.
Aklile, who has a major share in the Ghion Hotel, failed to finalize the transformation process by transferring his first payment to the authority within 30 days of signing the contract with PPESA. PPESA accordingly wrote in November a warning letter to the investor, stating: pay or the deal is off.
Although Aklile failed to make his first payment, he travelled to Ethiopia within a week following the warning and opened a bank account, according to the authority that expects a first transaction soon. No transfer has been made until this paper goes to print.
According to the deal, the investor has to come up with 210 million dollar as his first registered initial capital. The total investment sum is to be 310 million dollar, which includes 100 million dollar for the government-shared hotel.
When the investor invests an additional 300 million dollar in the next five years, he will own 80 percent of the Ghion Hotel. The rest will be state-owned.
According to the deal, the current swimming pool will be closed down for public and will make way for a new four star hotel, counting five floors, which will be accompanied by another five star hotel. The latter would be built at the location of the current Ghion building. During the construction, the hotel will not be closed down, the deal states. The two hotel buildings are expected to be completed within five years.

"Selam Bus Planning Share Sale for Expansion"
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Company takes 10 new buses worth 25m Br into reception, plans new local routes



After receiving 10 new buses Selam Bus Line SC bought for 25 million Br, the company on Monday, November 29, 2010, disclosed plans to float 833 shares, each worth 6,000 Br, to the public.

The buses were bought from Yutong Co, the Chinese company which assembled the buses, with half of the money obtained through a loan from Wegagen Bank. The balance was raised by Selam Bus, which was established as a private limited company with a capital of 13.7 million Br by Tigray Development Agency (TDA) in 1996.

The company had to add five million Birr to the amount it initially planned due to the 20pc devaluation of the Birr against a basket of currencies in August 2010, according to Berhanu Kebede, general manager of Selam Bus, which floated shares in 2006 and last year to reach 50 million Br in capital.

“All the shares the company has decided to float were because TDA, the majority shareholder, wanted to sell them,” Berhanu told Fortune.

Selam Bus, which made an 11 million Br profit against 42.3 million Br revenues in the previous fiscal year, has already entered into an informal agreement with Yutong to buy 15 more buses for 45 million Br and the shares to be floated will be used to finance the purchase, according to Berhanu.

This expansion is for a proposal it submitted to the Ethiopian Transport Authority (ETA) two years ago to be allowed to start a transport service to Djibouti, Sudan, and Kenya. Its request has not been approved yet.
The government is discussing certain issues before starting negotiations with Sudan and Djibouti, according to Abelneh Agidew, head of Promotion and Public Relations at the ETA.

“We already have dry and liquid freight transport relations with these countries,” he told Fortune. “Yet, many issues like customs tariffs and how to settle problems which may arise are very important factors which must be worked out and might take some time.”

While Selam awaits approval, it is also focussing on expanding local routes.

“With the new buses, we will be adding new routes in addition to the eight we used to run,” he told Fortune.

They include Addis Abeba-Hawassa, Dessie-Bahir Dar, Mekele-Humera, Mekele-Shire, and Addis Abeba-Shire.

Before the arrival of the new buses last week, the company used to operate with 29. Initially, it provided service through 25 buses which later increased to 50. However, it auctioned off 21 buses at different times as they became too old.

The new buses were assembled using parts from different companies; the engines are from Cummins Engine, a United States (US) company, and the transmission from ZF Technology, a German company. They are all equipped with various amenities like toilets, air conditioning, refrigerators, as well as TVs and DVD players.

Ethiopia targets 45 million phone users
Thursday, December 9 2010 at 00:00

Ethiopia has set its state-owned telecom monopoly a target of netting 45 million mobile phone subscribers after it last week outsourced the company’s management function to giant France Telecom.


Ethiopia is Africa’s second most populous nation with 82 million people.

Based on the agreement, the Ethiopian Telecommunication Corporation-—the oldest telco in Afric— will now be known as Ethio Telecom.

France Telecom is best known for its mobile phone brand, Orange.

As of December 2, 2010 Orange will take over the management after its $41 million bid was accepted.

The money will cover a service and profit sharing agreement that will see France Telecom bring in 24 “highly-skilled” managers to lead different departments of the firm.

Ethiopia started its mobile telephone service some eight years ago with a capacity of 350,000 subscribers in the capital Addis Ababa and other major towns.

Less than 10 per cent of Ethiopia’s population has access to a mobile telephone.

Currently the company has eight million mobile phone service subscribers across the country.

It has set a target of reaching 12 million and 17 million people in 2011 and 2010 respectively.

The ambitious plan was announced by Mr Debretsion G/Mariam, the minister for communication, information and technology.

A BlackBerry phone service will also start soon, he said.

Ethiopia has broadband and under-water sea cable connectivity via Sudan and Kenya but the service still suffers frequent outages.

The government has invested heavily in its telecoms industry in the past few years, including an 80 Gigabyte fibre network via the Port of Sudan landing station.

Mr Debretsion admits this service needs improvement with modernisation works underway in the company including fibre-optic cable installation across the country that has been going on for the last three years and which ended on November 2010.

“We own the longest fibre optic cable line in sub-Saharan Africa and that is the biggest achievement” Mr Debretsion added.

Chinese telecoms giant ZTE in 2008 bagged a contract from Ethiopia to build next-generation telecoms networks in 14 major cities.

The East African nation is offering a cheap mobile and fixed phone service but is the second-most expensive country in the world for broadband Internet, according to the United Nation’s International Telecommunications Union.

Mr Debretsion also said the government is looking to reduce pricing and improve connections in coming seasons.

New Ethio Telecom (Orange) chief executive Jean- Michel Latute said he was confident of meeting the target.

Failure to meet the set parameters will lead to the immediate cancellation of the deal.

The Ethiopian government has set a minimum performance rate of at least 75 percent for Orange to get a profit share and other incentive packages.

The government has so far rejected a strong push from International Monetary Fund and other agencies to liberalise its telecoms sector.

Ethiopia is among countries which practice web filtering and phone tapping against critical websites and individual mail accounts, critics allege.

But Mr Debretsion denied this and said his office was not aware of any such issue.

Ethiopia has an independent agency called Information Network Security Agency (INSA) which is affiliated with the national intelligence office.

The government said INSA is assigned to defend any possible cyber attack against government interests.

Africa Review

Africa Oil Corp., a Canadian oil and gas exploration company, said it signed an agreement with the Ethiopian government to survey the Rift Valley Block.

The company will carry out an airborne geophysical survey of the 42,519 square-kilometer (16,417 square-mile) block, it said yesterday in a statement. The area is north of the South Omo Block where Africa Oil has a joint holding with U.K explorer Tullow Oil Plc and Agriterra Ltd.

Africa Oil’s exploration areas in Ethiopia, Somalia’s Puntland region and Kenya “host numerous oil seeps indicating a proven petroleum system,” the company said.
Nine companies are operating 17 licenses to prospect for oil and gas in Ethiopia, Ketsela Tadesse, head of petroleum operations, licensing and administration at the Ethiopian Mines Ministry, said in an interview today in the capital, Addis Ababa.

“This part of the world can generate substantial amounts of oil and gas,” he said. “But there is a need for more data and more active work.”

The ministry hopes to license at least two new operations per year, with a minimum of $500 million invested in prospecting over the next five years, according to Ketsela.

No reserves have been proven apart from about 4.9 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in concessions operated in the eastern Ogaden region by Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-based Petroliam Nasional Bhd., Ketsela said.

MAP OF OIL EXPLORATION

Nyota Minerals’ Ethiopia Mine Finds High-Grade Gold, CEO Says


A discovery of high-grade gold in Ethiopia by Australia’s Nyota Minerals Ltd. may expand the size of the mine and is a “very important step forward,” said Chief Executive Officer Terry Tucker.

The find showed ore at the Tulu Kapi mine of 23 grams per metric ton, higher than the average of 1.68 grams earlier discovered, Tucker said in a phone interview from London.
The company had estimated the mine would hold reserves of 1.38 million ounces, though that may now be higher, he said.
“It changes the project quite dramatically,” Tucker said.

Nyota has spent 9 million pounds ($14 million) in drilling since November 2009, and plans to invest a further 18 million pounds over the next 12 months, Tucker said.

The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s lending arm, has a 10 percent stake of Nyota and has invested 5.5 million pounds, Tucker said

Ethiopia is aiming to license 50 mineral-exploration projects every year and more than double annual exports from the industry to $1 billion in five years, Gebre Egziabher Mekonen, head of the Mines Ministry’s mineral operations department, said Nov. 11. The Horn of Africa nation exported $281 million of gold in the fiscal year to July 7

City to Install New Kinds of Trash Cans at 110 Million Br


13 December 2010

The Cleansing Management Agency and Recycling and Disposal Project Office of Addis Abeba is to receive 110 million Br by the end of December 2010 from the city administration to install 1,700 waste disposal containers around the city.

This came after the agency had submitted its proposal for the waste containers to the city's finance and economy office, which is mandated to allocate capital to agencies, according to Ermias Siyume, deputy manager and core process owner of the agency.

The proposal submitted includes an environmental impact assessment (EIA) done with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the areas where the containers are planned to be placed, as well as a study on the socio-economic impact of the project.

"The study was conducted in 116 weredas and 817 sub weredas for the installation of a new kind of container which cost 36,000 Br each," Mekonnen Taffese, communication head of the agency, told Fortune.

The new containers have three different compartments for items that can be recycled, for plastics, and for waste that easily decompose. The city has planned to install these containers in 1,000 selected areas in the 10 districts based on the study it has done.

Sustainable Development
A planned total of 1,700 new kinds of containers will be installed in these areas, according to the deputy manager.

"Every wereda will receive two containers for the disposal of solid wastes," he told Fortune.

However, some houses may have to be demolished in order to install these containers.

The agency will start the installation on the already cleared selected areas, according to the deputy manager. In accordance with the city's urban plan, concrete placing with fences will be constructed to protect the solid waste.

These new containers will be erected all around the capital once the finance and economy office verifies the locations proposed, according to Mulatu Gebru, manager of the agency.