Priority Sectors

Ethiopia has huge investment potential and the main investment priority sectors are:   

MANUFACTURING SECTOR

1. TEXTILE AND APPAREL

  • Booming industry that grew 7-fold since 2008 with 3 Mill hectares of land suitable for cotton production
  • Opportunity: Commercial cotton production; textile manufacturing (ginning, spinning, weaving and/or knitting, dyeing, printing); Garments manufacturing, Trim manufacturing (zippers, buttons, etc)

2.LEATHER & LEATHER PRODUCTS

  • Ethiopia accounts for 2.5 % of the world livestock population with ~57.83 mill cattle; 28.04 mill sheep and 28.61 mill heads of goat. Every year, the nation produces 5 million tons of hides, 8.1 million tons of sheepskins and 7.5 million tons of goat skins
  • Opportunity: Tanning of hides & skins; leather garments, footwear, accessories – gloves, handbags, etc;
  • PHARMACEUTICALS
  • Ethiopia has the potential to serve as an export hub for the > $ 20 billion pharmaceutical markets in Africa
  • High local demand, only a few local manufacturers covering < 20% of the demand with its pharma market expected to grow by 15% annually
  • Opportunity: Finished pharmaceutical products, Generic drugs, etc

3.AGRICULTURE SECTOR

  • AGRO-PROCESSING & HORTICULTURE
  • Abundant natural resources – rich arable land, agro-climatic zones,
  • Agro-processing sector growth at 60% CAGR with an increased local demand for processed foods
  •  4th largest non-EU exporter to the EU cut-flower market and the 2nd largest flower exporter from Africa
  • Opportunity: Fruits & vegetables (Fruit crops, juice, tomato); poultry, dairy and red meat; cereals (barley, wheat, maize, oil seeds, edible oil), industrial crops (sugar, coffee), floriculture, herbs, etc

4.SERVICE SECTOR

TOURISM

  • Origin of mankind and one of the oldest civilizations
  • Home to several cultural and historical heritage sites, nine of which are included in the UNESCO list of world heritage

As political capital of Africa, Addis Ababa brings high representation of international and regional organizations

ICT

  • The Government of Ethiopia on building an inclusive digital economy
  • Key in creating an enabling environment for creative industries and innovation
  • Opportunity:IT applications, e-commerce, IT infrastructure, IT equipment manufacturing

5.ENERGY & MINING 

ENERGY

  • Low electricity access provides opportunity for off-grid solutions; Over 95% of rural areas and over 14.3 million households are without the access to power.
  • Rapidly growing electricity demand at 30-35% annually;
  • Opportunity: Power generation, off-grid solutions, renewable energy sources, etc  MINING
  • Only producer of opal in Africa and emerging country for oil and natural gas exploration
  • Opportunity: mining potentials for gold, potash, platinum, opal, iron, tantalum, marble, granite, limestone