Government to Guarantee Capital Repatriation
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) and National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) are to reconsider the request of foreign investors in Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements to be able to repatriate profits, dividends, and capital without going through formal waiting lists.
“We agreed to provide them with a partial guarantee by allocating some amount of foreign currency at commercial banks. If banks fail to avail the foreign currency, the ministry will take up the responsibility,” said Tilahun Tadesse, Director General of the PPP directorate at MoF.
This directorate, expected to evolve into an agency, has studied and tendered 23 infrastructure projects that require USD7 billion in investment. Yet, only the Gad and Dicheto solar projects have been signed thus far.
“Numerous foreign investors are interested in PPP projects but they back-off because they could not get a guarantee of capital repatriation from the government. They invest with foreign currency but collect revenue in Ethiopian Birr, which they cannot take back. Therefore, we discussed on the matter and agreed to assure upon the repatriation in foreign currency without having to wait in foreign currency queues at banks,” added Tilahun.