The headquarters of the National Bank of Ethiopia (Photo: Capital Finance International)Addis Abeba – The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has approved strategic foreign direct investment initiatives to establish offshore accounts. The central bank aims to attract strategic investors across various sectors that can provide much-needed public goods and create new streams of foreign currency flows into Ethiopia. These projects will receive preferential treatment in three areas: the opening of offshore accounts, currency convertibility guarantees, and enhanced debt-to-equity ratios. Moreover, the foreign currency convertibility guarantee grants strategic investment projects a faster pathway to currency convertibility and offers them a guarantee that surpasses all other foreign currency claims, except for sovereign debt claims. However, the foreign currency convertibility guarantee is only accessible once the FDI strategic investor has exhausted all avenues for purchasing foreign currency from commercial banks.

Source: Ethiopian News September 14, 2023 13:47 UTC