Business
Ethiopian oil company, National Oil Ethiopia, says Africa needs to have its own oil refinery
So too are other key sectors including banking, retail and telecoms, which the government says need shielding from foreign investors while the economy diversifies away from its agricultural base. Tadesse said NOC had secured a license for fuel stations in neighbouring Djibouti and targeted expanding its downstream operations into Kenya within five years.
Plans to enter South Sudan have been shelved due to the four-month conflict there. “We want to be a regional player,” Tadesse said. Oil consumption has doubled in 10 years in Ethiopia, one of Sub-Saharan Africa’s fastest-growing economies and now the region’s fifth-largest after leap-frogging Kenya.
Demand for oil in Ethiopia is seen tripling by 2025, indicative of the economic transformation under way in Africa’s second-most populous nation which is still better known abroad for the famine of 1984 and communist-era purges. But the pace of NOC’s expansion at home hinges on the government relaxing its grip on the industry. Tadesse said the government imported all fuel products and set the market price, allowing fuel stations a margin of just 4 U.S. cents per liter. Land rights issues also hindered growth. “In no way can that be attractive to investors,” he said.
Source: The Africa Report
