The Ethiopian Parliament today passes the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) by officially beginning its journey to liberalization of the long awaited financial sector. Ratification of the AfCFTA makes Ethiopia among the twenty countries that have approved the bill so far. The passing of the bill makes Ethiopia to open its long awaited financial market, especially the banking sector for at least for African banks. This is because the financial sector is one of the five areas required to be opened by the parties of the AfCFTA under service sector liberalization. Already it has demonstrated that it is possible to undertake rapid reforms as we see now,” he said, commenting on the relation between financial sector liberalization and the AfCFTA.

Source: News Business Ethiopia March 21, 2019 17:03 UTC