The Ethiopian Investment Agency canceled investment licenses of over a thousand companies. The decision came after a warning was posted for a list of 2,497 companies to report to the Agency to avoid having their investment licenses revoked.
“We gave the warning in the beginning of January and now we have revoked investment licenses of companies who were not able to report as the warning stated,” said Aschalew Tadesse from the Public Relations office at the Investment Agency.
Some of those that have had their licenses revoked are; CRBC Addis Engineering Plc’s license for an expansion, East African Pharmaceuticals expansion project, Holland Car Plc and Access Resorts Hotel Plc.
The list of the companies which was posted at the Agency’s office was divided into three main sectors which were tour operation, machinery rentals and agriculture.
The list also includes companies such as Deventus Wind Technology Plc, ELFORA Agro Industry Plc’s real estate development, Boston Partners lodge hotel international standard star designated restaurant expansion project, Jupiter Agro Farms Plc that produces vegetables and flowers for export and St.Mary’s Educational Development Plc higher education institution new project.
“We are currently going through documents of various companies and conducting an evaluation. We are checking to see if everything is done correctly. Accordingly we have put up a notice asking companies who do not have the appropriate and necessary documents to come and report to our office,” a PR officer at the Agency told Capital.
Some of the reasons for the licenses to be revoked include failure to renew the investment licenses as well as not starting the operations for which the license is issued for.
“Some of the companies acquired investment licenses for projects but end up failing to begin operations in the specific time provided by the law. These companies will have to provide a persuasive and acceptable reason in order to keep their license,” the PR officer also said.
The companies on the list are involved in a variety of sectors such as construction, tour operation, hospitals, restaurants, many of which specialize in Chinese cuisine, consultancy firms, higher education institutions, construction machinery rentals, flower farms, hotels and more.
According to the Agency, initially, the companies were given a window of 20 days to be able to fix the problem to stop their license from being revoked.
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