He is looking to buy a second-hand car imported from the Gulf states or Europe - but even they are prohibitively expensive because the government classifies cars as luxury goods. It seems little wonder that Ethiopia has the world's lowest rate of car ownership, with only two cars per 1,000 inhabitants, according to a 2014 Deloitte report. Henok Demessew, who has been running a car import and sales business in the capital, blames taxation. "If it was not for that, we would have been able to import better cars either from Europe or America. In 2016, government records show that 110,000 cars were imported to Ethiopia, an increase of more than 50% on the previous two years.

Source: Ethiopian News January 16, 2017 19:30 UTC