(Horntrade) – Ethiopia, Djibouti and South Sudan reached an agreement to partner in infrastructure development. The tripartite agreement includes the construction of telecom, railway, oil pipeline networks as well as duty free zones linking the regional economy.

The agreement was signed by Sufian Ahmed, Ethiopian Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh, Djiboutian Minister of Economy and Finance and Kosti Manibe Ngai, South Sudanese Minister of Finance and Economic Planning at the Sheraton Hotel in the Ethiopian capital. Read the rest of this entry »

(HornTrade) – Dakar-Djibouti trans-African highway to traverse 10 African countries – The 8,715 km trans-African highway linking Dakar (Senegal) to Djibouti (Djibouti) will traverse 10 West, Central and East African countries, according to a document made available to PANA on Wednesday in Addis Ababa.

The document said the highway, which would combine the Dakar- N’Djamena link with the Djibouti-N’Djamena link, will pass through Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia. Read the rest of this entry »

(Horntrade) – Verizon has expanded its global enterprise network platform, enabling multinational corporations to take advantage of Verizon’s Private IP service in six additional African countries, and Bahrain and Qatar in the Middle East.  The expansion will make it possible for Verizon customers with locations in these emerging markets to more effectively exchange data and global business applications and employ the company’s world-class managed network and security solutions.

Leveraging the strengths of Verizon’s global multiprotocol label switching network and the reach of the company’s network alliance provider Vodacom Business in Africa, Verizon enterprise customers can add Private IP services to their offices in: Gabon on Africa’s western coast; Djibouti and Ethiopia on the Horn of Africa; Malawi and Zimbabwe in Eastern Africa; and Swaziland in the southern region.  In addition, Verizon professional consulting services can help customers in the region design and implement a networking solution tailored to their business requirements. Read the rest of this entry »

(HornTrade) – Ethiopian telecommunications company Ethio Telecom has reduced calls from landlines across various zones. According to a statement on the company’s website, the rates were cut two-thirds to 83 cents per minute during peak hours and to 35 cents in off peak hours, a reduction of some 230 percent.

The move has left Ethiopian customers excited about the possibility of using their phone more often without extra costs. “I am very excited because I live in Addis [Ababa] and my son lives outside our zone, so to call him will be a great opportunity now,” Hallelujah Tharen, a mother of three, said. Read the rest of this entry »

(HornTrade) – Karuturi Agro Products, a subsidiary of Indian giant Karaturi International, is set to establish a sugarcane factory in Ethiopia.

The factory, with an estimated capacity of crushing 7,000 tonnes of cane a day, is to be built in Ethiopia’s Gambella Regional state.

Some 15,000 hectares of Karuturi land in Gambella will start producing sugarcane in three years, said Assefa Arega, manager of Karuturi’s sugarcane plantation. The company expects the crushing plant to be ready in time for the harvest. Read the rest of this entry »

(HornTrade) – Allana Potash is expecting to acquire equity capital from new strategic investors for its project in Ethiopia, in the New Year.

The company expects that the positive preliminary economic assessment completed last month will result in developments in the coming year.

The PEA stated that a one million ton per annum mine at the Dankil project will cost 796 million US dollars to build. The capital cost figure makes the projects the lowest cost and possibly the highest return potash project in the world according to Farhad Abasov CEO of Allana. Read the rest of this entry »

(HornTrade) – The Ethiopian Railway Corporation and the China Engineering Construction (CCECC) signed an agreement for the construction of an electric railway line between Me’eso-Dire Dawa-Dewale, a region which lies in the eastern part of Ethiopia, on the 16th of December.

HornTrade – The Sh75 billion Lake Turkana Wind Power consortium—the largest single private investment in Kenya’s history — will earn Sh26 billion (€200 million) over its lifespan, the sponsors have said.

The plant has been registered with the United Nations Framework Convention and the income will be shared with the government and the community.

It is expected to start producing 50 megawatts (MW) of electricity in the last quarter of next year and reach full production capacity of 300 MW three years later. Read the rest of this entry »

(HornTrade) – Ethiopia signed an agreement with a Chinese state-run firm to build the final section of a railway line that will link its capital Addis Ababa to the tiny Red Sea state of Djibouti, an official said.

The deal signed late on Friday with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) covers a 339-kilometre line that will join another project to connect the capital with Djibouti.

“This agreement is a contract to construct between Mieso, which is half way from Addis Ababa, to the Djibouti border,” Getachew Betru, general manager of the Ethiopian Railways Corporation, told Reuters. Read the rest of this entry »

(HornTrade) – Djibouti on Tuesday agreed a $36 million loan to build a new port and expand the business upon which the tiny country’s economy relies, a government minister told Reuters.

Djibouti serves as a port for its landlocked neighbour Ethiopia, which accounts for about 70 percent of traffic.

“The port project of Tadjourah aims to decongest the current Djibouti-Ethiopia corridor including the port of Doraleh, whose traffic continues to grow since it opened on February 7, 2009,” Amarah Ali, budget minister, told Reuters. Read the rest of this entry »