19/02/2026
🚨 Big Policy Shift: Ethiopia ‘Open for Business’ on Forex 🚀
The National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) has just announced a landmark foreign exchange reform that makes the country far more attractive to global tech firms, service exporters, and foreign investors. 📊
🔹 Service exporters can now retain 100% of their foreign earnings indefinitely, instead of being forced to surrender part of them — a major incentive for tech companies, consultancies, digital services and more to earn, reinvest, and grow in Ethiopia. 
🔹 The reforms also ease bureaucratic hurdles: banks can now handle dividend repatriation and foreign currency accounts with fewer restrictions, forward FX trading is permitted, and access to foreign exchange is expanded. 
🔹 This shift is seen as one of the biggest market-based economic reforms in years — potentially unlocking new capital flows and boosting confidence in Ethiopia’s business environment. 
📍 Why it matters:
✔️ More foreign tech investment
✔️ Stronger incentives for export-oriented services
✔️ Easier cross-border finance for startups & global partners
✔️ Moving Ethiopia closer to an open, market-driven FX regime
📎 Read more on the reforms here: https://tech-ish.com/2026/02/17/ethiopia-forex-unlock-100-retention/
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Ethiopia liberalises forex: Service exporters now retain 100% earnings, whilst investors enjoy frictionless profit repatriation, unlocking the nation's digital economy.
