Ezega.com distributing high quality prepaid calling cards to its customers

Ezega.com, the premier web portal for Ethiopian News, Jobs, Real Estate, Classifieds, Entertainment and Social Networking, has begun distributing high quality electronic calling cards to Ethiopia to its customers. These phone cards can be used to call anywhere internationally, including all cities in Ethiopia and Africa. They are cheap, convenient and reliable, cards that will allow our customers to make affordable calls from the convenience of their homes easily. Customers can open an account with us and buy cards instantly. Calling card PINs are emailed to the customer immediately after purchase. Cards can be refilled just as easily by adding money into the account.

To meet the various needs of customers, Ezega Ethiopian phone cards are priced at $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. Unlike other calling card companies, we do not charge processing fee for purchases less $20. All of our cards, from $5 to $100, are sold at face value without any extra processing charges. Our cards deliver minutes as stated with each card and do not come with many hidden charges and rip-offs so common in the industry. Rates start from as low as 19.6 cents per minute to Ethiopia, allowing you about 25 minutes of uninterrupted talk to Addis Ababa. Our cards come with rounding times of either 1 minute or 3 minutes, depending on your needs. All cards have toll-free access numbers that are good for calls from the USA and Canada. To purchase Ezega prepaid call calling cards, please visit our Ethiopia Prepaid Phone Cards store here.

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Ethiopia's Hottest Jobs

Due to robust economic growth in Ethiopia during the last few years, workers in many sectors have been getting greater employment opportunities. Ezega.com has been monitoring vacancy ads in its database and found that some sectors did much better than others. Sectors that registered the most new jobs include high technology and engineering areas.

For more on this story, visit Ezega.com, the premier site for News about Ethiopia, Real Estate in Ethiopia, Ethiopian Social and Ethiopian Classifieds.

Full article posted here: Ethiopia's Hottest Jobs

The Ethiopian Real Estate Market

As in many countries of the world, the Ethiopian real estate has been booming for much of this decade. In many areas, prices doubled and even tripled in a span of a few years. The highest appreciation in home prices occurred in the five-year period between 2003 and 2008.

Home prices vary widely from region to region. Even within the same city, there can be wide variation in home prices. Homes in upscale areas such as Bole in the capital are worth much more than homes found in outlaying areas. In Bole, a Four Bedroom, Two Bath home over 500 square meter plot of land can fetch 3 million ETB (or US$ 300,000).

The real estate brokerage business in Ethiopia is not as well developed as in other countries. Buyers and sellers rely on agents locally called “Delalas” for buying and selling homes. These are traditional agents with no formal education in real estate but who basically mediate between buyers and sellers. A great deal of negotiation is involved in buying homes. Asking prices can be as high as 50% more than the final sale prices.

Delalas play critical role in convincing both sellers and buyers to come to terms. Normally, Delalas do not help you in completing the legal paperwork needed to complete the transaction. This must be done by the buyer and seller themselves and may take several months. It is very important that buyers check the authenticity of seller documents. Otherwise, they can waste crucial time and/or money in such endeavor. People who are less skilled with the Ethiopian bureaucracy may seek the help of legal assistants locally called “Guday Asfetsami”.

Home mortgages are almost none existent in Ethiopia. Most real estate transactions are conducted on cash basis. This has limited the liquidity of homes but it may also have prevented the kind of real estate bubbles we witnessed elsewhere. Mortgage financing may be obtained for some homes, primarily for new homes built by developers. These companies negotiate financing terms with local banks in advance for all of their clients, current and future one. They basically arrange group deals for those who can put the required down payment. Down payments vary from 20 to 40%. Although most mortgages are for 10-20 years in duration, some companies arrange mortgages for as long as 30 years. Typically, interest rates are variable and depend on the prevailing interest rate fixed by the central bank.

It is estimated that there are about sixty local and six foreign real estate development operators in the country (with a registered investment capital of close to 1.6 billion Birr, or US$160 million). A major problem with homes built by these companies is the time it takes for completion. In the past, some of these homes were completed many years past their due dates. And some never made it to completion.

The real estate boom has slowed considerably over the past year or so. And the ones most affected by the slowdown are the real estate developers. The Ethiopian diaspora has been the main client of these companies, and most of these clients have been from the United States which is in severe economic downturn currently.

“Over 70% of our clients are from the diaspora, 50% of whom are living in the United States,” said Samuel Taffese, proprietor and managing director of Sunshine Real Estate Plc, which last year handed over 166 G+1 houses and 26 apartments to customers. “The real estate market has failed to secure new customers from the diaspora because of the financial crises.” Likewise, Ropack International Housing Project, a South Africa-based company engaged in real estate development in Ethiopia, is also unable to collect payments for some 360 residential houses it built over the last few years.

Who can buy homes in Ethiopia? Anyone can by homes in Ethiopia as long as he/she is an Ethiopian citizen, foreign national of Ethiopian origin, or has Ethiopian parents. To see the latest listing of residential and commercial properties for sale or rent, please visit Ezega's Ethiopia Real Estate site. This site is the largest real estate portal in Ethiopia and lists hundreds of homes for sale and/or rent at any given time. Anyone can register and post properties for sale or rent for free.

For more information and data about Ethiopia, please visit Ezega.com, the best site for Ethiopian News, Ethiopia employment, Ethiopian Homes, Ethiopian Classifieds, Ethiopia Videos, and Ethiopia Entertainment.

Ethiopia’s Real GDP growth

African countries have scored remarkable economic growth this decade. During this time, the growth for the continent as a whole has been more than 5%. This has led people to speculate that, finally, some fundamental change is taking place in Africa. "For the first time in almost 30 years, we've seen a large number of African countries that have begun to show sustained economic growth at rates that are similar to those in the rest of the developing world and actually today exceed the rate of growth in most of the advanced economies," writes John Page, World Bank's chief economist for Africa.

Ethiopia has also had its share of economic growth over this decade, particularly during the latter half, 2003-2008. The solid line in this chart shows the Real GDP growth for Ethiopia (i.e., GDP growth adjusted for price changes). For the five year period between 2003 and 2008, the Ethiopian economy grew between 5 and 12%.

Also shown in the chart is the GDP Per Capita for Ethiopia, as well as the average GDP Per Capita for East Africa and Africa as a whole. Adjusted for inflation, Ethiopia’s GDP Per Capita grew from US$120 in 2000/2001 to US$154 in 2008/2009. This is based on prices that prevailed in year 2000. Ethiopia’s GDP Per Capita for 2008 (in 2008 US$) is estimated to be about US$850 (although data varies depending on the source). This means much of the increase in Per Capita GDP has been due to inflation.

Finally, the data shows Ethiopia’s Per Capita GDP is still much lower than both the Per Capita GDP averages for East Africa and Africa as a whole – less than 50% the average for East Africa and less than 20% the average for Africa.

For more information on this and related articles, please visit Ezega.com - The premier site for Ethiopia news, Ethiopia jobs, Ethiopia real estate, Ethiopia classifieds, and Ethiopia videos.

The Ethiopian week in review at Ezega.com

The leading news this week was the re-arrest of Birtukan Mideksa, the leader of Unity for Democracy and Justice party. Birtukan faces life behind bars after a pardon she was granted last year was revoked. The government said her pardon was revoked after refusing to acknowledge that she had asked for the pardon that led to her freedom last year. The head of the party's parliamentary delegation, Temesgen Zewde, said the first step will be a legal challenge, since Birtukan's arrest appears to violate the terms of the pardon proclamation. Government spokesman Bereket rejected Temesgen's charge, describing the arrest as a technical matter with no political implications. The US government expressed concern over her arrest. "The United States is concerned about the government of Ethiopia's arrest of Unity for Democracy and Justice Party leader Birtukan Midekssa," said the US embassy information officer Darragh Paradiso. The arrest of Birtukan also caused much interest in the cyber world, with many sites providing discussions and extended coverage on this topic.

Another news headline that received much attention at Ezega.com was entitled “High profile corruption arrests continue”. According to the article, Federal Police apprehensions of prominent businesspeople and veteran bankers has the private sector wondering where the arrests will stop. This time, Almaz Moges, whom the court ordered to return to her former post as General Manager of Nile Insurance in the appeal process, and Abebaw Desta, major shareholder of Star Business Group who had been jailed in 2001 but acquitted for alleged corruption after more than five years, have been taken into custody. Miniwyelet Atnafu, another major shareholder of Star Business Group; Temesgen Mehari, a returnee businessman also previously charged with corruption; Worku Megra, General Manger of Star Business Group, and Tesfaye Fante are all wanted by police but still at large. Police alleged that the suspects were dealing in unlawful financial guarantee bonds issued by Nile Insurance SC worth over 40.7 million birr.

At Ezega Jobs, many new and interesting vacancies were posted. Vacancy ads that received the most attention were “Accountant” by Joy Tech Plc; “Program officer” by CORDAID; “ICT Training expert” and “Computer Technician” by Oromia Information Communication Technology Agency. For more information, please visit http://www.ezega.com/index.aspx .

At Ezega Real Estate, many interesting homes for sale and rent were posted. Most viewed posts were “Villa for sale in Addis Ababa” for ETB 1,973,485; “House for sale in Addis Ababa” for ETB 2,700,000; “G+1 House for sale in Nazret” for 435,000, “G+1 House for rent in Addis Ababa” for ETB 36,000; and “Villas for sale in Addis Ababa” for ETB 2,500,000. For more information, please visit http://www.ezega.com/RealEstate/Index.aspx .

GDP by sector: Ethiopia Vs Mauritius, Tunsia & South Africa

The Ethiopian economy by sector is compared with those of Mauritius, Tunisia and South Africa, some of Africa's best performing economies. The data shows, the Ethiopian economy is much more dependent on agriculture than the other three countries. Even by African standards, Ethiopia has way to go to modernize its economy.

For more details, visit this page: GDP by sector: Ethiopia Vs Mauritius, Tunsia & South Africa