Foreign Investments in Ethiopia: A report released by financial consulting firm EY has shown that Ethiopia is still beating Kenya in the race for foreign investments. The report titled the ‘EY Attractiveness Survey 2019’ released in September last year shows that Ethiopia attracted foreign investments worth Sh. 726.6 billion in 2018 compared to Kenya’s inflows which stood at Sh. 207.6 billion in the same period.
This means that Ethiopia attracted nearly four times what Kenya managed to get. Tanzania attracted foreign investments of Sh. 103.8 billion.
Is Ethiopia the economic ‘China of Africa’?
The report also showed that foreign investments to Kenya created 6,000 jobs last year from 64 unnamed projects. However, Kenya was still beaten here again. More jobs were created in Ethiopia at 16,000 from 29 projects. In Tanzania, 3,000 jobs were created from 19 projects.
According to a report that appeared in Kenya’s Business Daily newspaper, Ethiopia is attracting higher foreign inflows than its regional peers, thanks to an efficient business environment and the lure of a huge untapped domestic market.
“Ethiopia has affordable electricity supply and is served by an efficient airline. It also has a huge domestic market with guaranteed access to external markets through its well-served Special Economic Zones,” the daily quoted Francis Kamau, a tax partner at audit and consultancy EY East Africa.