Among the growing manufacturing industries are leather products, garment and handmade clothes, agro-processing, furniture, aluminum and steel products, pharmaceuticals, and chemical industries. Currently thousands of micro, small and medium factories are engaged in production of quality products.

A total of 115,200 micro and small scale enterprises (MSEs) employing about 585.1 thousand people and receiving more than Birr 5 billion in loans for running their businesses were operating in 2020/2021, according to the latest annual report of the National Bank of Ethiopia released in March 2022.

In terms of regional distribution, 39.9 percent of the MSEs were located in Oromia followed by Amhara (34.5 percent), SNNPR (7.2 percent), Addis Ababa (6.7 percent), Sidama (6.5 percent) and Somali (3 percent) regional states.

With respect to total loans, SMEs in Amhara received 34 percent, Addis Ababa 25.7 percent, Oromia 22 percent, SNNPR 11.7 percent, Sidama & Dire Dawa 2.4 percent each. Of the total jobs created by
these enterprises, 49.4 percent was in Oromia, 20.8 percent in Amhara, 11.3 percent in SNNPR, 6.4 percent in Sidama, 6.1 percent in Addis Ababa and 2.8 percent in Somali.

The contributions of these small and micro enterprises in hard currency generation have been contributing to the growth of the economy of Ethiopia. For instance, this year some of these micro and small enterprises have generated 13 million dollars exporting their products.

Meanwhile most of these companies currently are looking for business partners both domestic or foreign to boost their production, refine their products and access new markets in Africa and beyond. That is why we launched this digital Ethiopian Products Catalog with the aim of linking them with potential investors and agents, which can distribute their products abroad and in different parts of Ethiopia.