Accelerating business growth in Ethiopia

Country: Ethiopia © Adam Scotti

Small and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) in emerging economies represent the greatest source of job creation. With support from GAC, the Renew Strategies’ Accelerating Business Growth (ABG) project has made waves in Ethiopia’s growing economy. It addresses the need for access to finance and management expertise, helping to build the most active SME investment practice in Ethiopia.

The project provided rigorous training to 61 executives in the SME sector (including 26 women) and 84 Chief Financial Officers (25 of whom were women). In combination with other supports, this training led to $56 million in outside investment in these SMEs in 2020 and created 5,806 jobs. Of 85 investments made, 29 were in women-owned businesses.

This project continues to help SMEs overcome challenges resulting from the current COVID‑19 pandemic by teaching companies the critical skills of cash-flow management, pivoting assets and contingency planning. For example, Samrawit Moges, co-founder and CEO of Travel Ethiopia, is weathering the pandemic with cash-flow from an investment, as well as connections with other ABG-supported SMEs that rent her vehicles and have helped find other positions for her part-time staff.

Project profile — Accelerating Business Growth in Ethiopia