Ethiopian officials have announced that the country has brought in more than 1.4 billion USD from the Ethiopian Diaspora in remittance, according to reports from the Ethiopian Diaspora Agency. The agency also said that it expects Ethiopia to attract 4 billion USD in hard currency by the end of the year from the diaspora community.
Speaking to members of the press, the agency’s director, Selamawit Dawit, said that there were fears that the COVID-19 pandemic would drastically affect Ethiopia’s cash inflow from foreign remittances, but current figures indicate that these impacts are not going to be as significant as expected.
Reports from the agency also indicate that the level of economic activity from the diaspora is significantly increasing. During the last 6 months alone the Diaspora Agency received a total of 847 new investment projects worth more than 85 million ETB.
During this same period, 35 of the 847 projects have begun operations after receiving the greenlight from the agency. These projects were approved after going through the agency’s evaluations system which is designed based on Ethiopia’s national and regional needs and interests.
Ethiopia’s diaspora community has also played a key role in the country’s response to the pandemic. Just last week the Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund committed over half a million USD to address medication and other medical supply shortages in the country. The fund has also organized a fundraising campaign to raise a similar amount from donations and bring the amount being provided up to one million USD.