Land leases
Ethiopia Leases 70,000 Hectares to Investors
Wednesday, 26 September 2012 11:25 Meron Tekleberhan Ethiopian Business News - Investment
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Ethiopia has been able to lease 70 thousand hectares or land to domestic and international investors in the past financial year according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
A large percentage of the farmland leased by investors is intended for the cultivation of agricultural products such as cotton, palm oil and sugar cane according to Isayas Kebede, Director of the investment Support Directorate.
The Ministry of Agriculture has projected that it will be able to lease an estimated 100 thousand hectares of land in the current fiscal year and has prepared land for lease to investors in the Amhara, Benishangul Gumuz and Oromia Regional states said Isayas.
Investment is a significant source of foreign currency and essential for the transfer of technology and it is important to aggressively work on means of encouraging investors through various incentives as well as ensuring that investors in the country are following through with their plans for investment he said.
The Ministry is concentrating on the task of follow through and ensuring the environmental sustainability of the projects being executed to protect the productivity of the land that is being leased to investors.
More than 3.6 million hectares of land has been leased to investors over the course of the years and the Ethiopian government is working on developing the infrastructure required to support large scale investment schemes explain sources.
Source: Ethiopian Herald