During the first five months of the budget year of the country started July 8, 2020, the Government of Ethiopia has secured $1.4 billion remittances from the Ethiopian diaspora who used legal banking channels to send money to their relatives.
When the year ends, the east African country expects to get $4 billion hard currency from its diaspora. This is indicated by Selamawit Dawit, the head of Ethiopian Diaspora Agency, according to the state broadcaster ETV report. She indicated that the outbreak of the global pandemic COVID-19, had some negative impact on the flow of remittances to Ethiopia even though it wasn’t that worse as initially anticipated.
In a related development, during the first six months of this budget year a total of 847 investment projects worth 89 billion Birr are submitted to the Agency by the Ethiopian diaspora.
She indicated that her Agency has been analyzing these projects to make sure that they meet the priorities of the country and the regions the investors are proposing to implement the projects. During the same period of the first six months of the year, 35 projects of Ethiopian diaspora has gone operational.