George@BehizyTweets
Ethiopia, one of the first Christian nations & the 2nd most populous African country, is currently experiencing massive economic growth due to pragmatic capitalist reforms after decades of failed socialist policies.
As a result, cities across the country, like the capital, Addis Ababa, are being radically transformed.
The government has been shifting its monopoly control over many industries back to the private sector, allowing foreign investments in banking, which has led to historic growth in the sector, opening telecoms to private entry, floating the currency so the free market can assign it its true value, and launching a Securities Exchange. Ironically, the increased competition in the private sector has also forced the remaining state-owned firms to perform at a higher level. Many entities that were once unprofitable are starting to turn a profit.
To ease doing business, major regulatory reforms have been implemented, such as liberalizing trade, allowing foreign investors to participate in export/import, wholesale, and retail, launching a "National Business Portal" for digital services, and cutting bureaucratic red tape to reduce costs for startups. These reforms have caught the attention of capital worldwide. Carrefour, a major retail company, is already making a move into the country. Industrial investors are also flocking in and creating thousands of jobs for locals. For example, TOYO, a Japanese solar solutions provider, has been investing heavily (est: $110 million) in solar cell manufacturing operations in Ethiopia.
The country is now also a major Bitcoin "mining" hub. Although they produce lots of electricity, they still don't have the distribution infrastructure necessary to connect the whole country. That requires heavy investments, so in the meantime, they have turned to global crypto mining firms, which need cheap electricity and easy regulations. They dedicated 600MW+ to mining, contributing ~2.5% of global hash rate (that's big). Deals with giants like BIT Mining, Phoenix Group &, and others are raking in millions in forex revenue. The power company has made anywhere from $200 million to $500 million in total over the last 24 months, money they're using to expand their grid.
The reforms have delivered strong results: GDP grew 8.1% in 2024 and is projected by the IMF to expand 7.2% in 2025 and 7.1% in 2026—one of the fastest rates in the world. Inflation has moderated from over 30% peaks to around 13-15%, foreign reserves have increased dramatically, and exports are rising. The country also just collected a historic amount of tax revenue within the last 6 months without increasing the rates.
One more thing to note is that the government has not allowed ego to lead the way. When they wanted to clean & beautify their polluted rivers in the capital city, they hired international experts to work on the first phase and have used the knowledge gained to drastically scale the operation on their own.
They still have a lot of work to do. For example, the central government seems to have no jurisdiction in certain regions with ethno-separatist groups & militias wreaking havoc against Orthodox Christian communities (as far as I understand). But I'm bullish because they seem to have the right leaders in place.
