Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday said Ethiopia will get an aid of worth $3 billion from the World Bank to help strengthen reforms in its traditionally state-controlled economy, reported Reuters.
While Abiy did not give many details about the funding, he mentioned on Twitter that unnamed development partners have promised more than $3 billion in addition to the World Bank and IMF funding. He said the money will be targeted toward macroeconomic, structural and sectoral reforms.
“This reaffirms both Governments’ and donors’ partnership to transition Ethiopia to a prosperous and peaceful nation,” Abiy wrote.
The announcement follows the signing of another preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Under the three-year agreement, Ethiopia will get $2.9 billion financing package from the IMF to support its economic reform program that would focus on addressing the foreign exchange shortage and transitioning to a more flexible exchange rate regime.
Ethiopia’s State Minister of Finance, Eyob Tekalign Tolina, told Reuters that the World Bank loan, once approved, would also be disbursed over a three-year period. However, he did not reveal when the funds will be released.
The international aid will help Abiy fulfill his promise that he made when he took office in 2018. He vowed to undertake economic reforms and open the country’s economy to private investment with an aim to modernize banking and telecoms and help provide jobs for more of Ethiopia’s 105 million people.
Earlier this week, the Ethiopian prime minister received the Nobel Peace Prize for 2019 at Oslo’s City Hall for his efforts to resolve the conflict with Eritrea. Abiy’s peacemaking efforts ended two decades of hostility with Eritrea. In July 2018, the Ethiopian prime minister and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki formally announced the end of the conflict between the two countries after a historic meeting in Eritrea’s capital Asmara.
