The liberalization underway in Ethiopia would enable the country to attract international investors, players and new markets, Nairobi Securities Exchange CEO Geoffrey Odundo said.
In an exclusive interview with ENA, Geoffrey Odundo said “East Africa especially is looking for the opportunity to do cross-border trading with Ethiopia. I think the economic transformation, especially the liberalization of various sectors, is a very good development if you are looking forward to how to be part of it.”
According to him, investors are very excited about the economic reforms being undertaken in Ethiopia to open it up, to allow international investors, players and new markets to come into the country.
The CEO noted that the financial reform in Ethiopia is in a very good advancement.
“Opening up the financial sector is extremely good to bring in especially international investors, bringing in companies which are going to raise money a lot faster, a lot easier, more transparency and governance of running of these companies because they become public.”
Putting that all together, what you are creating is a very transformative economy to take Ethiopia to the next level, he elaborated.
Commenting on the liberalization of the banking sector in Ethiopia, Odundo said “I think liberalization of the banking sector is beneficial to Ethiopia because you are able to bring in highly successful banks to come and invest in Ethiopia and when these banks come they bring in new products, new capital to the country and they are bringing in new businesses.”
The other good thing about opening up the financial sector is bringing banks that know how to do a lot of cross-border trading.
So, you find a lot of people who want to trade with Ethiopia and are able to trade a lot easier because they are coming with financial institutions that have good regional presence, he added.
For the CEO, that encourages a lot of cross-border trading, bringing in best international practices because you are bringing in banks that have been there for centuries.
He further pointed out that whether the institutions are coming either in joint venture with the local banks here or coming here as subsidiary, they are going to scale up the capacity of the local people.
Financial sector liberalization, which is opening the financial sector to foreign investment, has been shown to have multiple benefits for developing countries as it promotes financial inclusion, competitiveness, and innovation.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency