DAILY DISPATCH ONLINE
2008/06/19By LUYTON DRIMAN
THE aptly named Horn of Africa is for me, one of the most unique parts of this continent. Bradmanton Consulting
I cannot help but to discover a certain amount of mysticism during each visit.
The whole process of conducting business in Ethiopia is so different from most other African capital cities, mainly due to the fact that the Ethiopian economy is quite "closed", in as much as the Ethiopian Government has not allowed any international banks to open in the country. This means all import and export transactions are done via the three largest local banks.
The government also owns and controls all the service providers, like the telecommunication industry (fixed line and cellular), which essentially means in order to do business with these parastatals, you have to be registered as a supplier before you are able to tender for any projects. The local currency, the birr, is practically one-to-one with the rand. This means that the birr to the US dollar exchange rate is similar to that of the rand to the US dollar. [Read more]
