Ethiopia on Friday launched a securities exchange, in a move officials described as a milestone in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s campaign to open the country’s tightly controlled economy to private investment.
Only one company, Wejagen Bank, was initially listed on the Ethiopian Stock Exchange, but the exchange’s chief executive, Tilahun Kasahun, said he expected 90 companies to eventually join over the next 10 years.
State-owned telecommunications company Ethio Telecom, which is preparing for an initial public offering, is also widely expected to list its shares on the stock exchange.
“In a milestone for our economic and financial landscape, we officially rang the bell to launch the Ethiopian Stock Exchange,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a post on the X platform.
Ethiopia – the second largest African country in terms of population with about 130 million people – had a stock exchange in the 1960s and 1970s, but the socialist military government that overthrew the monarchy in 1974 abolished this stock exchange.
It recorded some of the fastest rates of economic growth on the continent in years.
Abiy Ahmed’s steps to liberalize the economy since he took power in 2018 have attracted the interest of foreign companies, including Kenya’s Safaricom, which won the country’s first private telecommunications license in 2021.
