Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Sheikh Al-Amoudi is the largest foreign investor in Ethiopia and holds an Honorary Doctorate in Philosophy from Addis Ababa University. He returned to Ethiopia from Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s, creating MIDROC Ethiopia as his main investment vehicle in 1994. He was determined to use his access to private capital wisely in order to build infrastructural capacity and to increase employment opportunities. For his philanthropic activities in Ethiopia, see the Section on Philanthropy on this website.

Technology transfer from Europe has been central to his business commitment to the country. MIDROC Ethiopia Technology Group acts as a central resource for one third of the 30 companies in the MIDROC Investment Group which include gold mining, agribusiness and manufacturing. MIDROC’s other interests in Ethiopia are in property, steel, construction, air transport and manufacturing and he also owns theSheraton Addis.

Gold mining is of great importance to the Ethiopian economy and total national investment in the industry has surged from less than $100m to an accumulated $1.3bn between 2003 and 2010. Although only one of 80 or so companies in the Ethiopian mining sector, MIDROC is by far the most significant and so provides an important function in helping towards Ethiopia’s $400m of annual mining exports. The national ambition is that $1bn of hard currency will be generated from all mining sources by 2015.

His latest large-scale and perhaps most significant African investment has been the leasing of 500,000 hectares of undeveloped Ethiopian agricultural land for rice, sugar, edible oils, grain and other production for export and home markets alongside a significant investment in port facilities in Djibouti. He has done this through his company Saudi Star Agricultural Development. Major shipments are expected to start in mid-2011.

In March 2011, Saudi Star announced a further investment of $2.5 billion in Ethiopian rice projects. Some 10,000 hectares have been taken up in 60-year leases and the company plans to rent an additional 290,000 hectares.

The Sheikh welcomes competition and sees his dynamic commitment to the country as operating in stages – first as a general conglomerate, then in building foreign reserves through export and, now, in applying private capital and proven management skills to agribusiness, vital in a country that has had serious past problems in feeding its own population.