Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, has announced plans to open up commerce to foreign businesses and permit foreign nationals to purchase real estate.
The declaration was made as the nation with the second-highest population in Africa—roughly 120 million—seeks to strengthen its economy.
“We intend to introduce legislation allowing foreign nationals to possess property,” Abiy declared during a business executives’ gathering that was televised by state TV late on Saturday.
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He stated that the latter phases of drafting the legislation were underway.
Furthermore, according to Abiy, the government wants to remove barriers and allow foreign companies to enter the retail market, not just Ethiopian ones.
The landlocked nation struggles with extremely high inflation, a deficiency of foreign currency reserves, and an approximate $28 billion external debt.
Abiy unveiled a comprehensive reform proposal to liberalize Ethiopia’s strictly regulated economy after taking office in 2018.
However, the economy has drastically declined recently, and there is generally less will to carry out the reforms.
Nonetheless, Ethiopia has announced its plan to sell up a portion of the state-owned Ethio Telecom and granted a license to the massive Kenyan telecom company Safaricom, marking a partial opening of the country’s telecom market.
Additionally, the government has stated that it intends to permit foreign participation in the banking industry.
