Ethiopia Red Tape Is Barrier for Business as Country Opens Up
- Abiy seeks to move Ethiopia to top 100 on World Bank rankings
- State has started process to liberalize Horn of Africa economy
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Bureaucracy remains a stumbling block for businesses as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed strives to roll back decades of tight controls and maintain one of the fastest rates of economic growth in Africa.
The country’s World Bank Ease of Doing Business ranking has been above 159 of 190 countries for the past five years, and the government wants to improve that to below 100 in 2021, according to the prime minister’s office. The government has introduced an online system to register businesses, a new import-export platform to simplify trade document processing and the state is amending policies and will introduce a new investment law.
“Ethiopia has already identified what needs to be done,” Charles Robertson, Renaissance Capital’s global chief economist, said in an emailed response to questions. However, one of the major challenges for companies is access to credit and this won’t suddenly “be miraculously better,” he said.