VituVingiSana wrote:The Ethiopian Birr is tightly controlled thus the parallel rate is much higher like the South Sudanese Pound was but not as bad. We saw how the profits and investment of KCB and Equity was severely diminished when the SSP was floated.
So anyone investing in Ethiopia by taking money INTO Ethiopia needs to write-down part of the investment since you get a lousy low rate for the Birr. Repatriating profits is very difficult so one cannot assume there will be cashflow from the investment. It is locked in Ethiopia.
This is also further complicated by the fact that you have to obtain approval to repatriate profits i.e to buy dollars the NBE has to give you a permit.
The ET government also changes their fixed FX rate at will similar to the 20% devaluation in 2010. There are also plans to devalue it in the near future due to high inflation rates.
Their application to join WTO is pegged on a floating currency and opening up the economy so this may change.
Investment philosophy development in progress...