Ethiopia aims to achieve complete industrial self-sufficiency in three years

Posted on : Monday , 8th January 2024

Within the next three years, the Ministry of Industry plans to meet the nation's need for food, beverages, apparel, and textiles through domestic manufacture by announcing a number of ambitious goals.

The Ministry of Industry has presented an ambitious plan to meet the country's food, beverage, textile, and clothing needs fully through local manufacturing within the next three years, therefore reducing the nation's dependency on imports.

The state minister for Industry, Tarekegn Bululta, stated that the ministry is aggressively working to meet its goals. "Boosting import substitution capability and enhancing competitiveness" is the strategic approach's main goal.

Manufacturing sectors that are focused on producing food products, drinks, non-metallic minerals, and textiles make up more than half of all 5,000 industrial businesses in the nation.

About 38% of the country's demand is currently satisfied by domestic manufacture; the remaining portion is satisfied by imports. "This needs to be adjusted," Tarekegn said.

The Ministry is aiming to significantly increase the percentage of goods produced domestically in an attempt to change this dynamic. The goal for the next ten years is to increase the domestic share to 60%, which is a significant increase from the current 38%.

The government just approved a new industrial policy that aims to increase the manufacturing sector's output and efficiency. Moreover, the objective is to enhance the industry's share of the GDP, which has decreased from 5.9% in 2019 to 4.4% in 2022.

Presently, just 5% of Ethiopia's workforce is employed in the manufacturing sector.

The data furnished by the ministry suggests that, in the initial half of the current fiscal year, $852.2 million worth of domestically produced items have replaced equivalent imports.

For the duration of the fiscal year, the government has proposed to replace $2.3 billion worth of imports with domestically produced items.