I spend a lot of time in Ethiopia for my company. In many parts of Addis Ababa, the entire skyline is under construction - you can't look up anywhere without seeing a new building in progress. The sound of hammers is ubiquitous. You can tell the place is booming.<p>Most of the large construction projects are run by Chinese companies, especially the Chinese State Construction Corp. New airport terminal, ministries, hotels, convention center, light rail, and so on. This has caused some discussion around Chinese taking construction jobs etc. You'll see these state-funded Chinese construction projects in pretty much every African country.<p>Although Addis is booming, the population still primarily lives in the countryside, and their quality of life is a lot lower. It's misleading to look at average income across the entire population because the city's economy is so far ahead of the rest of the country. This has probably contributed to some of the unrest.
There was an interesting Danish documentary on foreign investments in Ethiopia titled "Dead donkeys fear no hyena's" [1]. It came down that economic investments (including from the World Bank) are used to drive indigenous people from their lands, that land is sold (outside of the public eye) to anonymous foreign agricultural corporations to start industrialized agriculture. However, those corporations will just export everything abroad, leaving the local people with little return, and, most importantly, without food. Promises of compensation, relocation and education are, of course, neglected, and people who dare to protest are met with arms.<p>1. <a href="http://www.deaddonkeysfearnohyenas.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.deaddonkeysfearnohyenas.com/</a>
This is good, but there are some potential problems.<p>1. Ethiopia's GDP per capita is ~$700 USD, so this growth is from a very low base.<p>2. Total fertility rate is 4.28. Compare this to China at 1.57 and USA at 1.84. This means that some of the growth just goes to supporting a larger population.<p>3. I have read elsewhere that you need government connections and a lot of money to do business in Ethiopia. So the benefits of this growth might not be as broad as they otherwise could be.
Ethiopia seemingly has an incredibly good relationship with China. The lion's share of FDI in Ethiopia is from China, and much of it goes towards large infrastructure projects. Flying through the airport in Addis recently I was surprised to see multiple Chinese restaurants, a special lounge for Chinese travelers, and signs everywhere in Chinese.<p>It's great to see economic cooperation working out so well on so many levels!
So after reading Factfulness by Hans Rosling and family I'm really interested in investing in African companies. Ideally it would be through index funds. I got as far as finding ABSA as my go to online broker, but couldn't find any indexes to research (just a bunch of broken links)<p>Would anybody have any resources or direction to point me to?
Get you an air popcorn popper and some green Ethiopian coffee beans [0] and enjoy some of their great economy right in your own home!<p>[0] <a href="https://www.sweetmarias.com/green-coffee/africa-arabia/ethiopia.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.sweetmarias.com/green-coffee/africa-arabia/ethio...</a>
Just a few years ago, Libya was the jewel of Africa and led in almost every social and economic metric. I wonder what happened there to throw them so horribly off course?
Sing it along with me:<p>If you are told the percentage increase, check the absolute increase;<p>Aaaaand if you are told the absolute increase, check the percentage increase!
Ethiopia is an interesting place. You can smell the money in the air.<p>"Ethiopia hailed as 'African lion' with fastest creation of millionaires"
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/ethiopia-faster-rate-millionaires-michael-buerk" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/04/ethiopia-faste...</a><p>Ethiopia is not an easy place to travel. People are friendly but reserved. English it not very common there. They are not the African "buddy" type of people (ey man, lets have a beer!). If you are into adventure, go to the Bale mountains and take a three day horse ride expedition and try to see the Ethiopian fox. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_wolf" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_wolf</a>
Or take a two week expedition on horsed to see the Ethiopian lions (unfortunately longer that my ass can sustain on a horse). AFAIK the only lions that live in the jungle. It is a rough place. I like it. Possibly love it, but Ethiopia is not for everyone.<p>Addis has two major museums. If you want to see Lucy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(Australopithecus)</a> make sure you go to the right one.<p>If anyone is interested in importing ore, please ask me. My Ethiopian friends are always nagging me for business contacts.