His moves to liberalise the economy by opening up lucrative state-owned assets to foreign investment have been cheered by his people as well as outside investors keen to enter one of Africa's last untapped markets.īesides his stated desire to attract foreign capital into one of Africa’s most closed states, Abiy has brokered peace with Eritrea, with whom Ethiopia fought a border war two decades ago. Since taking office in April, Abiy has turned politics and the economy on its head in the nation of 100 million people. The dollar shortage has also dissuaded international firms from investing out of fear they will struggle to repatriate profits. Since earlier this year, essential items including insulin, blood pressure medication and infant formula have become scarce. A decade-long infrastructure push aimed at industrialising the overwhelmingly agrarian nation to create jobs has as a side-effect exacerbated the dollar shortage.
