Business climate in Ethiopia: Competition to increase in 2014 — MIDROC Group

“The Ethiopian economy has started from scratch. Twenty years ago in Ethiopia, private company owners were not allowed to have more than 500,000 Ethiopian birr legally,” explains Jemal Ahmed, Chairman of Horizon Company.

“The free market was introduced only twenty years ago. It takes time for it to grow and now in the last two or three years we have seen lots of foreign direct investment and more Ethiopian entrepreneurs are coming up as well. The government is investing heavily in infrastructure and some heavy business industries. We see that we are on the right track going forward but the challenges still remain because we are primarily dependent on primary commodities,” he adds.