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A foreign investor who plans to engage in Investment in Ethiopia, or a domestic one or a partnership of foreign and domestic investors: all these need to know the investment procedures to follow to apply for investment permit to invest in Ethiopia or to expand or upgrade their existing investments. This page contains the investment procedures in Ethiopia as laid out in the proclamations and regulations.

These procedures have been taken out of

However, it’s advisable that a reader gets these documents for a comprehensive understanding of the existing proclamations and regulations.

1. Investment Permit:

The following investors shall be required to obtain investment permits:

• Foreign investors;
• Foreign nationals, excluding Ethiopians by birth, taken for domestic investors pursuant to Article 2(5) of this Proclamation;
• Domestic investors investing in areas eligible for incentives;
• Domestic and foreign investors making investments in partnerships.

2. Application for Investment Permit:

By a domestic investor:

The application shall be made in a form designed for such purpose (can be obtained from the Ethiopian Investment Agency) and submitted together with the following documents (the application form the documents have to be submitted in two copies, where they are submitted to the Agency, or in one copy, where they are submitted to Regional Investment Organs).

• Where the application is signed by an agent, a photocopy of his power of attorney;
• Where the investment is to be made by an individual person, a photocopy of his identity card, or a photocopy of the certificate evidencing his domestic investor status and his recent two passport size photographs;
• Where the investment is to be made by a business organization, photocopies of its memorandum of association and Articles of Association; or where the business organization is newly established, in addition, it shall submit photocopies of the shareholders’ identity cards, or photocopies of the certificates evidencing their domestic investor status;
• Where the investment is to be made by a public enterprise, a photocopy of the Regulation under which it is established or a photocopy of its memorandum of association and Articles of Association;
• Where the investment is to be made by a cooperative society, a photocopy of its Articles of Association

By a foreign investor:

The application shall be made in a form designed for such purpose (can be obtained from the Ethiopian Investment Agency) and submitted together with the following documents: (the application form the documents have to be submitted in two copies to the Agency).

• Where the application is signed by an agent, a photocopy of his power of attorney;
• Where the investment is to be made by an individual person, a photocopy of the pages of valid passport showing his identity and his recent two passport size photographs;
• Where the investment is to be made by a business organization, photocopies of its memorandum of association and Articles of Association; or where the business organization is newly established, in addition, it shall submit photocopies of the shareholders’ valid passports showing their identity
• Where the investment is to be made by a branch of a foreign business organization in Ethiopia, photocopies of its memorandum of association and Articles of Association or a similar document of the parent company; and
• And where it’s a joint investment by domestic and domestic foreign investors, in addition to the documents provided in the above third list, photocopies of the identity cards, or photocopies of the certificates evidencing the domestic investor status of the domestic investor status, as the case my be.

For Expansion or Upgrading of an existing enterprise:

The application shall be made in a form designed for such purpose (can be obtained from the Ethiopian Investment Agency) and submitted together with the following documents (the application form the documents have to be submitted in two copies, where they are submitted to the Agency, or in one copy, where they are submitted to Regional Investment Organs).

• Where the application is signed by an agent, a photocopy of his power of attorney;
• Where the investment is made by a business organization, photocopies of its memorandum of association and Articles of Association; and
• Photocopy of a valid business license of the existing enterprise.