As part of improving its doing business global ranking, Ethiopia launched today online business license registration platform.
Inaugurated at the presence of Deputy prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister, Demeke Mekonnen, the new platform allows anyone to get a new business license within hours. Getting a new license in Ethiopia used to take up to 30 days as own has to fulfil lots of requirements including brining office renting agreement, among others.
The Minister stated that Ethiopia is working hard to benefit from the digital economy as stated in the recently launched ten years development plan. He mentioned as example the on the pipeline digital national identification project, and the recently launched online taxes and customs clearance platforms.
Minister of Trade and Industry, Melaku Alebel, who recalled that currently Ethiopia is ranking 159th on the World Bank ease of doing business index, noted that within the coming ten years his Ministry is working to make Ethiopia one of the top 50 countries in the world best to do business.
In Ethiopia currently a total 2,370,000 businesses are registered in Ethiopia. The figure was 695,986 eight years ago. The new online business registration is expected to encourage small and informal businesses, among others to operate formally registering their businesses.