Banking Sector Generates 88 Million US Dollars to Ethiopia

BY NEW BUSINESS ETHIOPIA REPORTER

Ethiopian government has collected a total of one billion and 458 million birr (88.2 million US dollars at the current exchange rates) in profit tax from both private and government banks operating in country in 2009/10 fiscal year (July 8, 2009-July 7, 2010).

Ethiopian Government revenue from banking sector as Illustrated by newbusinessethiopia.com

The income of the east African country from private banking sector has grown by 39 percent for the fiscal year 2009/10 compared to the preceding year.

Ethiopia’s income in profit tax from the ten private banks in the country, which have began making profit, has increased by 162 million birr in 2009/10 fiscal year from the previous fiscal year. It reached 580 million birr (around 35 million US dollars at the current exchange rates).

Ethiopian banking sector data collected by newbusinessethiopia.com shows that the giant state-owned bank in the country, Commercial Bank of Ethiopia, has paid 840 million birr (50.8 million US dollars at the current exchange rates) profit tax in 2009/10 fiscal year which is 46 million birr higher than the preceding fiscal year. 

Banking sector in Ethiopia has also created jobs for a total of around 24,000 citizens. Out of which 13,000 are employed by the ten private banks that already began declaring profit.

The number of employees in the sector and government earning is also expected to increase next year as the new banks such as Abay, Debub global, Hawassa, Enat and Noah banks will go fully operational.

As almost all banks in the country began start making profit during their second year of operation, Bunna International Bank is also expected to contribute for the 2010/11 fiscal year tax income increment of the country from banking sector. 

Ethiopia Gets $224.3 Million Funding for Power Lines

By William Davison

(Updates with comment from ADB in second paragraph.)

Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopia secured $224.3 million from the African Development Bank to fund the construction of four electricity transmission lines to improve its own power supply and help development in neighboring countries, the lender said.

Additional transmission capacity is “critical and timely” for Ethiopia’s industrial development, said Lamin Barrow, the AFDB’s resident representative, by phone today from the capital, Addis Ababa. The lines will connect areas in the north, east and south-west of the country, and help expedite plans to export power to Sudan and Kenya, he said.

Under a five-year plan, Ethiopia, which suffers from intermittent blackouts, plans to quadruple power generation to at least 8,000 megawatts and expand electricity coverage to 75 percent of the population from 41 percent now. A lack of transmission lines is hindering attempts to export power, the state-owned Ethiopian Electric Power Corp. said on Dec. 8.

The Tunis-based African Development Bank will lend Ethiopia 61 percent of the funds and donate the rest, Barrow said.

The project, which will see 948 kilometers (589 miles) of 230-volt cables laid, is scheduled to finish in Aug. 2013, Barrow said. Eight new sub-stations will be built and another 11 upgraded under the plan, he said.

--Editors: Alastair Reed, Tony Barrett.

To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net