Ethiopia Will Build Biggest Airport in Africa, says Prime Minister Abiy

Ethiopia has finalized a study to build Africa’s largest airport capable of handling nearly 130 million passengers annually, according to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD). During his address to parliament early Thursday morning, Abiy outlined a massive expansion in the country’s aviation industry. Ethiopian Airlines, the country’s national carrier, has also ordered 124 new airplanes in a bid to expand its fleet, according to the PM’s statement.

The new airport would significantly increase the annual passenger capacity of the airline, which currently handles around 25 million people.

Abiy’s address, which follows the new President’s inaugural speech to a joint house session three weeks ago, was marked by positive performance indicators resulting from the recent economic reform. The PM reported a 24% growth in remittance flows following Ethiopia’s adoption of a market-based exchange regime policy and a 161% increase in the country’s FX reserves. 

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Abiy revealed that Ethiopia’s banks had purchased 652 million dollars while selling around 1 billion dollars after the reforms. This was bolstered by a mix of credit facilities and grants, which grew nearly ninefold from the same period last year to around 3.4 billion dollars. Abiy expects nearly 27 billion dollars to flow into the country throughout the four-year economic reform program the country adopted upon the International Monetary Fund’s prescriptions.

The PM also revealed that the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) had been rescued via 900-billion-birr capitalization through comprehensive negotiations.

“If CBE failed, the entire banking industry would have failed,” he noted.

Ethiopia has also become the largest wheat producer in the continent, with nearly 30,000 tons slated for the year, according to the Prime Minister. Significant job creation was also highlighted by Abiy in emerging sectors like business process outsourcing (BPO) in line with a 4.3 million national job creation yearly target.

The PM underscored a 6.2% economic growth rate throughout the past year, which was the highest in the region despite an international slowdown.

“Our problem is not attaining economic growth but pundits who can't understand an economic report,” Abiy said.