![\"Diaspora](\"http:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Diaspora-policy-meeting-Amsterdam-2-1024x655.jpg\")
Ethiopia\u2019s parliament has\u00a0passed a bill\u00a0to allow members of the Ethiopian diaspora, who have taken up nationalities in other countries, to invest, buy shares, and set up lending businesses in the country\u2019s state-dominated financial sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the latest step in a general push to liberalize the country\u2019s economy. The government has previously said it will\u00a0privatize Ethio Telecom, the state-owned telecommunication monopoly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since Ethiopia does not allow citizens to have dual nationalities,\nthe latest round of reforms is seen as good news for the country\u2019s 5\nmillion-strong diaspora community as well as Ethiopians with foreign\nnationalities living inside the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The government has been eyeing overhauls to the financial sector, along with other sectors, since Abiy Ahmed\u2019s appointment as prime minister. But authorities have previously called for preparation\u00a0ahead of any full-scale effort that might create an influx of international banks, and hurt local lending practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some see the opening up of the financial industry to the country\u2019s diaspora community\u00a0as a trial run\u00a0for its eventual full liberalization, a move that excites Ethiopian investors abroad. \u201cIt will be great for both the country and diaspora community to be able to invest in the whole financial sector,\u201d says Kassy Kebede, founder and managing director at Cepheus Growth Capital, a New York-based Ethiopia focused private equity fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Outside of the US, Mimi Alemayehou, a Dakar-based managing\ndirector of the investment platform, the Black Rhino Group, says she is keen to\ninvest, and has spoken with other Ethiopians in the diaspora who are looking to\ndo the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Targeting the diaspora for Ethiopia\u2019s economic growth has been a\nrecurring theme by the prime minister. Last year, Abiy set up a council for\nthe Ethiopian\nDiaspora Trust Fund<\/a>, a non-profit organization which raises money\nfrom the global diaspora community, and works alongside the government to build\ndevelopment projects in Ethiopia. The call was simple: donate $1 a day to\nrestore your home country. Ethiopians in the diaspora listened, and so far, the\norganization has raised over $4 million for projects in financial inclusion,\nentrepreneurship development, and much more.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Birhanie Beka Geleto, a finance director at the DC-based consulting firm, Dewey Square Group says the opening is a good opportunity for the diaspora to bring \u201ctechnology advancement in the industry with them.\u201d Digital transformation is something the country has in mind, with Ethiopia\u2019s parliament placing provisions in the recent overhaul to allow the\u00a0private sector to operate digital-based\u00a0financial services in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Source: Quartz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ethiopia\u2019s parliament has\u00a0passed a bill\u00a0to allow members of the Ethiopian diaspora, who have taken up nationalities in other countries, to invest, buy shares, and set up lending businesses in the country\u2019s state-dominated financial sector. It\u2019s the latest step in a general push to liberalize the country\u2019s economy. The government has previously said it will\u00a0privatize Ethio …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":11418,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-embassy-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ethiopian-Diaspora.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13446,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13445\/revisions\/13446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ethiopianembassy.be\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}