Oromia Disburses 16.9 Billion Birr in Loans to New Entrepreneurs

Oromia Regional State claims to have overseen the disbursement of 16.9 billion birr in loans to new entrepreneurs over the past year, a figure officials say represents a 420% jump from the previous year’s 3.2 billion. Habtamu Kassa, deputy director of the region’s job creation and vocational bureau, announced the numbers through state media, presenting them as evidence of a bold push to stimulate enterprise.

The Bureau also says more than five million residents underwent entrepreneurship training, with officials touting the effort as a way to modernize agriculture and ease anxieties around borrowing. “People used to be afraid of taking a loan to start a business before our trainings,” Habtamu said.

Nonetheless, the scale of the achievement remains striking. The bureau reports that over two million residents were organized into enterprises, supposedly generating 2.8 million jobs. That figure nearly matches the 3.2 million jobs Ethiopia’s Ministry of Labor and Skills says were created nationwide in the first nine months of the fiscal year, a peculiar parallel, especially given a long-standing credit cap imposed by the central bank, only recently eased from 14 to 18%.