Manufacturing exports generated $607m (£475m) during the 2025/2026 fiscal year, propelled by a substantial surge in domestic capital allocation.
Addis Ababa,(AMECO) — When high operating costs, regulatory friction, and infrastructure gaps threatened to paralyze production across Ethiopia’s industrial hubs, government officials and industrial leaders took an unconventional step: they established a direct intervention body tasked solely with systematically unblocking factory bottlenecks.
The creation of the Manufacturing Industry Council marked a shift toward targeted problem-solving in a sector critical to addressing Ethiopia’s foreign exchange deficits and urban unemployment. According to the Ministry of Industry’s annual review for the 2025/2026 fiscal year, this focused mechanism identified and resolved fundamental operational hurdles for 192 manufacturing enterprises over the past 12 months.
The policy intervention has yielded tangible economic results. Manufacturing exports generated $607m (£475m) during the 2025/2026 fiscal year, propelled by a substantial surge in domestic capital allocation.
To overcome severe liquidity constraints that previously stifled industrial expansion, state and commercial financing provided to the manufacturing sector expanded to 115bn Ethiopian birr (£760m) during the period — a nearly threefold increase from the 40bn birr allocated in the 2021/2022 fiscal year.
This combination of unblocked regulatory channels and expanded credit helped bring new facilities online, creating more than 430,000 direct jobs over the past fiscal year and absorbing significant labor pressure in urban centers.
Addressing delegates at an industry awards ceremony in Addis Ababa, Minister of Industry Melaku Alebel outlined the next phase of the strategy, which focuses on international market penetration. Under a newly launched export framework targeting 31 strategic international commercial hubs, the ministry aims to raise annual manufacturing revenues to $1bn in the 2026/2027 fiscal year, with a long-term target of $9bn by 2030.
While structural challenges in global logistics and regional stability remain, the integration of direct institutional support, increased domestic credit, and targeted trade diplomacy offers a practical blueprint for industrial resilience in East Africa.
