In July 2024, reforms, elections, and rising debt were pivotal themes across African economies. Ethiopia joined Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt, and Kenya in implementing comprehensive macroeconomic reforms to unlock $16.6 billion in multilateral funding. The country liberalised its foreign exchange market by removing import restrictions and allowing the Ethiopian birr to float freely against major currencies for the first time this century.
As seen in Egypt, the Ethiopian reforms will likely create a more structured foreign exchange market, enhancing trade competitiveness and reducing currency risks as parallel market activities diminish. These reforms spotlight new investment opportunities in Ethiopia and the wider East African Community (EAC), which has outperformed sub-Saharan Africa’s growth twofold over the past decade.
East African countries are becoming hubs for tourism and technology investments, evidenced by the 2.2x growth in start-up funding from 2019 ($110 million) to 2023 ($247 million). However, as seen in Nigeria, poorly implemented reforms
