Register a company in Ethiopia

An agent can file the investment permit application with a valid authorisation document (Regulation 474/2020). Our Addis Ababa team files on that basis. We have found no official rule that requires the founder in person at any step, but we confirm it for your case before you plan around it. The authorisation you sign abroad is itself a foreign document, so it goes through the notary and embassy route like the rest.

Registration starts from $2,900. Official EIC fees and a legal address, if you need ours, are quoted separately. With an EMI or online bank account, from $4,800. The EIC's own fees are modest and set in US dollars (USD 50 each for the permit and the commercial registration), while the USD 200,000 minimum per project is money you invest in the business, not a fee.

Yes. Proclamation 1180/2020 requires a foreign investor to allocate at least USD 200,000 to a single project, or USD 150,000 when investing jointly with a domestic investor. The figure is capital for the investment project; the PLC's own share-capital rules under the Commercial Code are a separate point we confirm for your case. Architectural, engineering, technical consultancy, testing and publishing work has a lower floor: USD 100,000 alone, USD 50,000 with a domestic partner. Capital brought in is registered with the EIC within a year. Foreign retail sits far higher, at USD 2.5 million paid up.

Regulation 474/2020 keeps a list for domestic investors that includes travel agencies and tour operation, hotels and restaurants without a star designation, construction below Grade I, primary and middle-level health services, bakeries for the home market and grinding mills. Freight forwarding, advertising, audiovisual production, domestic air transport, and accounting and auditing need a domestic partner, with the foreign stake capped at 49%. The Investment Board can revise these lists, and its Directive 1082/2025 did so for trade: most of the reserved import, export, wholesale and retail business is now open to foreigners.

Corporate income tax is 30%. VAT is 15% once taxable supplies reach ETB 2 million in 12 months. Dividends to non-residents carry 15% withholding, and so do profits neither reinvested nor paid out within 12 months. On payroll, the employer adds 11% of basic salary for pensions and withholds salary tax at up to 35%, the top band starting above ETB 14,000 a month. Those two 15% rates and a 2.5% minimum tax on turnover, due where declared tax falls below that level, come from an amendment approved in July 2025; PwC's July 2026 summary still lists its gazette as pending.

Under Regulation 474/2020 the EIC issues the investment permit right away once it approves the application, and a refusal must be notified within three working days. The EIC's FAQ gives a minimum of 5 days, or half a day when every requirement is already met. What moves the calendar is the document route abroad, which comes first. Our own preparation time is confirmed in your quote.

Our second package opens an account with an EMI or online bank remotely, with the KYC file prepared for you. An Ethiopian bank is a separate track: for a foreign-currency account, the EIC writes to the bank and you then need permission from the National Bank of Ethiopia. NBE Directive FXD/01/2024 lets companies with foreign direct investment hold non-resident foreign-currency accounts and use them for all foreign payments. Most foreign loans need NBE approval, and for a foreign investor the debt-to-equity ratio may not exceed 60:40 of the foreign capital.

Yes. The investment law gives a foreign investor the right to remit profits, dividends and the proceeds of a sale or liquidation in convertible currency. Repatriation runs through NBE approval; for dividends the file is audited financial statements, board minutes, tax receipts and a valid business licence, and the directive says the NBE shall not deny it when those documents are complete. Withholding of 15% comes off first. Exporters have a separate rule: half of export proceeds is converted into birr straight away.

No. Ethiopia is not party to the Apostille Convention. Documents issued abroad are authenticated by a notary and the Ethiopian embassy in that country, then registered by Ethiopia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A corporate founder also files notarised certificates of its commercial and trade name registration, or other legally acceptable evidence issued in the country where it is registered.

Until the project starts operating, the investment permit is renewed every year. Once the business licence is issued, the permit no longer needs renewing and the licence is renewed each budget year, which runs from Hamle 1 to Sene 30 in the Ethiopian calendar, roughly 8 July to 7 July. Renewal needs tax clearance, and a PLC with 10 or more shareholders or assets above ETB 10 million adds an audit report. Let the licence lapse and clients withhold 30% instead of 3% on larger payments. Books are kept for ten years.