The Ethiopian Railway Corporation has lost an arbitration case brought by Turkish contractor Yapi Merkezi at a London tribunal. The ruling required the state-owned enterprise to pay the contractor, though the tribunal left the deadline and payment terms to be negotiated between the two parties.
The ERC's debt formed part of a broader debt transfer affecting multiple state-owned enterprises. The corporation's debt accounted for 97 billion birr of approximately 900 billion birr transferred to the Ministry of Finance.
Since May, the ERC has continued construction work using its own resources and expects to need two years to complete the remaining seven percent of the railway line.