Economy
Safaricom CEO: FX Reform Drives Local Manufacturing
BirrMetrics · 2 hours ago · Read the Full Story on BirrMetrics
AI SUMMARY
Safaricom Ethiopia CEO Wim Vanhelleputte stated at the Ethiopia Finance Forum 2026 that the country's foreign exchange reform is boosting domestic manufacturing, job creation, and economic value addition.
- Safaricom Ethiopia CEO Wim Vanhelleputte stated that foreign exchange reform is improving access to foreign currency for domestic businesses.
- The reform is expected to spark a boom in local manufacturing, enabling firms to import raw materials and produce goods domestically.
- Ethiopia launched economic reforms in July 2024, shifting to a market-based exchange rate and removing mandatory export surrender requirements.
- Foreign reserve coverage has risen from less than two weeks to over two months of imports, while the parallel market premium has narrowed.
- Merchandise export earnings climbed 119 percent to about 8.3 billion US dollars in the 2024/25 fiscal year.
- Gold exports surged to 3.46 billion US dollars and coffee exports rose 86 percent to 2.67 billion US dollars.
- Inflation declined from an average of 27 percent in 2023/24 to 16 percent in 2024/25.
- Real GDP growth rebounded to 9.2 percent in the 2025 fiscal year, with the World Bank projecting 7.2 percent growth for 2025/26.
- Safaricom Ethiopia's network covers 59.2 percent of the population with 13.6 million active subscribers.
- M-PESA reached 5.2 million active subscribers in fiscal year 2026 and processed 442.2 million transactions.
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