During his interview with EBC titled “The Heart of Sovereignty: Part 1” last night, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) explained that a primary reason investment has failed to grow in Ethiopia is the historical lack of proper investment site selection and poor Return on Investment (ROI) analysis. 

To illustrate this, the Prime Minister compared the Awash-Mekelle Railway Project, which cost $2.6 billion in commercial loans and could take 40 to 50 years to return the initial investment, with the new fertilizer factory. Currently being built for $2.5 billion, the fertilizer factory is expected to begin operations in two and a half years and will be able to return its investment within just five years.

He further addressed the inefficiency of past industrial park developments, stating that spending $1.6 billion in loans simply to "bend corrugated iron" or build "sheds" does not create a true industry. He noted that because these investments were not managed properly, they led to significant macroeconomic imbalances. The "Medemer" government is now prioritizing sectors that utilize resources properly and offer high economic value, such as the highway construction projects on the Djibouti route.