Ethiopian Airlines and Geven-Sky Tecno inaugurate a state-of-the-art facility for the manufacturing of Insulation Blankets for Boeing 737 MAX airplanes. Similarly, Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s biggest Airline sets its eyes to expand its manufacturing hub in one of the industrial parks in the country.
As indicated on the official inauguration ceremony held on Wednesday September 21, 2022 in the attendance of senior government officials, diplomats, and the management team of the airlines, the two companies committed to jointly manufacture the products in Italy and Ethiopia, as a supplier to the Boeing Company.
The new joint venture company of Ethiopian Airlines and Geven-SkyTecno, named “Ethiopian Sky Technologies”, is based in Addis Ababa with primary manufacturing facility at Bole Airport. Ethiopian Airlines holds 51percent stake while SkyTecno holds 49 percent stake of the newly established company.

“As part of our vision to develop Aerospace manufacturing industry we are glad to unveil Ethiopian Sky technologies” said MesfinTasew, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines Group adding, partnership with Geven-SkyTecno takes our capability to the next level We are happy that we have gone into this tri-partite relationship with Geven-SkyTecno and Boeing and that we started manufacturing and exporting the Aircraft Thermo-Acoustic Insulation Blankets for the 737 MAX. We are keen to expand the scope of activities to other aerospace products to the mutual benefit of all parties”.
The Joint Venture focuses on delivering tailor-made solutions for Boeing 737 MAX airplanes. Products are manufactured in a multicultural environment in synergy between the African and European continent, subject to strict quality control, in order to meet the most demanding expectations of the aircraft industry.
As indicated, Ethiopian Sky Technologies is manufacturing and delivering the aerospace products in accordance with the terms of the Agreement and the stringent requirements of the Aerospace Industry. In addition to building the aerospace manufacturing capability of Ethiopian Airlines, the partnership also enhances Ethiopia’s manufacturing infrastructure and international trade connections.
Geven-SkyTecno has been contributing its process technology proficiency, manufacturing know-how as well as being responsible for speeding up the industrialization, qualification processes and training skills to the Joint Venture.

“We are very pleased to announce this joint venture with Ethiopian Airlines, with whom we are looking forward to working together,” said Alberto Veneruso, Managing Director of Geven-SkyTecno, adding, “Our manufacturing excellence combined with our expertise in process technology, industrial efficiency and world-class distribution capabilities will provide our customers with best-in-class insulation solutions.”
Ethiopian Airlines being the fastest growing Airline in Africa commands the lion’s share of the Pan African passenger and cargo network operating the youngest and most modern fleet to more than 130 international passenger and cargo destinations across five continents. The airlines is currently implementing a 15-year strategic plan called Vision 2025 that will see it become the leading aviation group in Africa with Seven business units: Ethiopian International Services; Ethiopian Cargo and Logistics Services; Ethiopian MRO Services; Ethiopian Aviation Academy; Ethiopian ADD Hub Ground Services, Ethiopian Airports Services and Ethiopian Express Services (Domestic).

Siinqee bank announces its official operation becoming the first bank to transfer from micro-financing. On Thursday September 22, 2022 the bank held its official opening ceremony with the presence of higher government officials and its customers.
Speaking at the occasion, Neway Megersa, president of the bank, said that the bank has prepared to give both banking and micro finance services to its customers.
On February 16, 2022, Siinqee officially received its license from the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) to start operations with a subscribed capital of 15 billion birr and a paid up capital of 7 billion birr following its transformation from Oromia Credit and Saving Share Company staring from May 2021.

Following the issuance of proclamation no.40/1996, a proclamation that determined the licensing and supervision of micro finance institutions, Oromia Credit and Saving Share Company was established in August 1997 to give micro finance services obtaining an operational license from NBE and trading license from the federal Ministry of Trade and Industry.
“The purpose of the establishment was because of the inaccessibility of contemporary financial services to the rural people in the region which contributes to their impoverishment,” said the president.
According to him, with in the past six month the bank has served over one million clients including farmers, women, unemployed youths, traders, Medium and Small-Scale Enterprise operators, women entrepreneurs and others. The bank president also emphasized that the vision of the bank is to be the first (the leading bank) in the next five years and be one of Africa’s largest banks.
Six month ago, the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) approved the appointment of Neway Megersa as the first president of Siinqee Bank. The company has also appointed Zewdie Tefera, who has been working as acting president of the bank as the Chief Operating Officer.

The change came through the proclamation no 626/2009 and NBE directive no SBB/74/2020, which allows microfinance institutions to evolve into commercial banks with a two-year transition period, to which the executives of the microfinance made the transformation from microfinance to banking services. The company was thus renamed to Siinqee Bank, which is sourced from the cultural institution of Oromo women.
Currently, the company has more than 400 full-fledged branches which 250 of these branches has got the NBE permit to start operating while the rest 155 are waiting the permits.

Energy utility providers in Somaliland and their government form a special purpose vehicle (SPV) as per the Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP) recommendation in order to realize interconnection to access cheap energy from Ethiopia.
The SPV Company, Tayo Energy Transmission Company (TETCO) LTD was formed from the Somaliland side to carry out the project that shall connect the country with the Ethiopian line.
According to the information Capital obtained from EEP, recently a private utility operator in Somaliland was in communications with the state owned energy generator, which is also responsible for power export, to connect Somaliland with Ethiopia through high tension lines so as to embark electric export to the self proclaimed country in the horn of Africa.
“However, we understood that the there are several utility companies operating in Somaliland. So we have communicated with their government to come up with a single entity that will be conducive for EEP to sell power smoothly,” Moges Mekonnen, Public Relation Head of EEP, told Capital.
He said that once their line stretches up to the Ethiopian boarder it will not be difficult to commence the cheap power export to Somaliland. However, the need for a single focal body to get in to a deal was mentioned as vital.
“I think the formation of the SPV is part of our recommendation,” he added.
Mohamed Farah, Managing Director of TETCO, told Capital that the company is formed and owned by current energy service providers, government and investors.
“We intend to serve all Somaliland energy service providers,” he explained via email.
He added that the creation of the company is to handle the project for transmission line and other related parts with an estimated cost around USD 200 million that will be covered by the private sector, Somaliland government and international stakeholders. However, he did not disclose who the international partners will be.
“Regarding the commencement of the project, we are planning to start as soon as possible and we expect that it will be three phases. The first phase will be finalized within two years or less,” he said.
In Somaliland about 15 major electricity service providers are currently operational.
Moges estimated that once the project is started it may take from one and half to two years, while the workload from the Ethiopian side will be shorter.
He reminded that there is ample infrastructure in the area since Somaliland is connected to about three countries. “The Aysah Wind Farm project, which is located at Shenelle Woreda of Sitti Zone of Somali region, is very close to the boarder of Somaliland so we have the line which has a capacity to carry 230 KV there, with a minor investment required from Somaliland to ensure that connection,” Moges said.
“We expect the total length of the transmission to be around 500 KM with a capacity of 220 KV or 400 KV. The number of substations is not finalized yet,” the TETCO Head said on his part.
Capital learnt that the Somaliland government through SPV arrangement joined TETCO to realize the demand of the Ethiopian side to connect the two nations.
The newly formed company will be responsible to distribute the energy for the utilities in the country.
So far the border town of Wajaale of Somaliland that shares Tog Wajaale of the Ethiopian border town is accessing Ethiopian power for cheap. However, big cities like Hargeisa, which is the capital, are using the diesel energy that is provided by multiple companies.
The cost of electricity in Somaliland is one of the highest in the world, while the Ethiopian rate is the vice versa.
Moges said that the country has ample capacity to provide energy for the neighboring country, “We are improving the handling of our energy. For instance for the New Year holiday festivity, we did not force factories to halt their operation as we did in the past.”
“We have made ready all our units for the holiday season and made available up to 3,200 MW energy capacities and the estimation consumption for this pick season was 2,700 MW, while the actual usage was 2,500MW. I say this to show how we are capable to provide energy for Somaliland at this stage if not in the coming years,” the Public Relation Head explained.
The 40MW energy generation wind mills of Aysah Wind Farm that was erected about 15 km from the border of Somaliland was connected to the national grid this week and the second phase with an additional 40 MW will be connected within three months time.
The wind farm has a capacity to generate 120 MW of power, “To commence the installation of additional windmills with the capacity of 40 MW, it is now in the manufacturing stages.”
The EPC project is managed by the Chinese Dongfang Electricity and 85 percent of the USD 257.3 million worth project is covered by Exim Bank of China while the remainder is covered from the national coffer.
Aysha is located about 700 km east of Addis Ababa and about 173 km from the Dire Dawa, one of the biggest cities in eastern Ethiopia.
Ethiopia is exporting energy for Djibouti and Sudan, while export to Kenya will be officially commenced in November.

RedFox Solutions Group becomes the first private data center after officially launching its Operations on Monday September 19, 2022. The inauguration ceremony took place at Hyatt Regency hotel and saw addresses by government officials and executives from both companies.
The HQ and Modular Data Center 1 (RFETH-MDC01) are strategically located at the ICT Park and are expected to become a key pillar for; building Ethiopia’s digital economy, lifting the startup ecosystem and overall acceleration of the digital transformation of the country. As indicated on the launching ceremony, the move aims to bring state-of the-art infrastructure, availability, efficiency, and sustainability to the sought-after ICT hub at the park.
RedFox was founded by Ethiopian-Diaspora Professionals with multiple years of experience in the areas of Telecom and Information Technology. In addition to its four main products (Edge Presence, Cloud, Modular Data Center and Build-to-suite), RedFox offers off-premise customized infrastructure deployments , secure certified designs, and architectures for institutions that have compliance requirements for in-house solutions. RedFox will also provide certifications-enabled data center designs to keep up with the quick and ever-changing trends in the industry; to list some of the best certifications its designs will enable: HIPPA, PCI DSS, SSAE 16, SOC, ETC.