Ethiopia Grants First Financial License to Foreign Lease Company

  • Company to import equipment worth $600 million in three years
  • Ethiopia is opening up its economy to more foreign capital
Abiy Ahmed

Photographer: Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

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Ethiopia’s central bank granted its first financial services license to a leasing company that plans to bring into the east African country equipment worth $600 million.

Ethio Lease, a unit of New York-based Africa Asset Finance Company Inc., said it will purchase equipment from agricultural machinery to medical equipment and drilling rigs, and receive payment in Ethiopian Birr.