By Richard Lough
May 26, 2014
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopia has pushed the door ajar for foreign retailers keen to enter the fast-growing market of 90 million people, welcoming them as managers but keeping the state in control.
It is a tantalising, if limited, offer for firms such as Walmart of the United States and Kenya’s Nakumatt supermarket, which already have stores elsewhere on the continent and would like a foothold in sub-Saharan Africa’s fifth biggest economy.
“It is a vibrant market. The population is huge, the income is there, they have a lot to go around,” Nakumatt’s managing director Atul Shah said. “Why are we not there?”
Ethiopia has said it needs to modernise its supply and distribution networks and encourage competition to cut costs and keep down inflation, which leapt to 40 percent in 2011 when food prices surged and government price caps led to hoarding.