Ethiopian Airlines and the French government’s Agence Française de Développement (AFD) signed a loan agreement of 50 million euros on 20 June at the airlines headquarters which will see a new cargo terminal constructed.
The agreement is aimed at financing the construction of a cargo terminal. The new cargo terminal is part of the Ethiopian’s Cargo Vision 2025, which aims to support the country’s fast growing export of perishables, such as flowers, fruits, vegetables and meat. As part of Ethiopian Cargo Vision 2025, the plan is to operate 18 dedicated freighters serving 37 international cargo destinations by 2025.
Ethiopian Airlines’ chief executive officer, Tewolde Gebremariam, and Christian Yoka, AFD regional director for Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia and Eritrea, signed the agreement at Ethiopian’s headquarters on 20 June in the presence of French ambassador to Ethiopia, Brigitte Collet.
“Infrastructure development is one of the four pillars of our fast, profitable and sustainable growth strategic roadmap, Vision 2025. This loan from AFD will enable us to build our new cargo terminal, which is being constructed in two phases, and when completed will have 1.2 million tons of annual capacity, making it one of the largest in the world,” says Gebremariam.
The credit agreement is the second of its kind for Ethiopian. The first one helped to fund the expansion and upgrade of Ethiopian’s multinational aviation training centre. It is nearly completed and is partially in operation, according to Ethiopian. “The new agreement shows our commitment to further support Ethiopian in its growth plan,” says Yoka.
