Ethiopia’s Big Bet: Birr is Coming Home

Ethiopia is apparently done waiting on foreign firms to print its cash. At the Finance Forward 2026 conference in Addis Ababa, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed made it official: the country is moving to print its own currency. For decades, the Ethiopian birr has been produced overseas, but the government is now betting that ‘monetary sovereignty’ is worth the massive upfront investment.

The engine behind this is Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) which, in just four years, has become Africa’s largest sovereign wealth fund, managing 8.2 trillion birr ($140 billion) in assets by consolidating giants like Ethiopian Airlines and Ethio Telecom under one umbrella.

By centralising these assets under a corporate governance framework, the government aims to boost productivity and transparency, with the goal of EIH contributing 20% to Ethiopia’s GDP by 2030.

The hybrid strategy

It might seem odd to build a physical printing plant while also pushing the Digital Ethiopia 2030 roadmap.