The Norwegian African Business Association (NABA) came with a business delegation from Norway to participate on the Africa Business Health Forum 2019 on 12 February. Norad representative from private sector section together with a Norwegian start-up accelerator company called Antler also presented the newly launched Norwegian digitalization strategy.
Ambassador Merete Lundemo welcomed participants and chaired the meeting. Updates on the overall African macroeconomic picture as per the recently launched Africa Economic Outlook report were presented by Ambassador Morten Aasland to the AU Delegation.
Updates on the current reforms in Ethiopia that are important for the private sector were presented by Morten Heide, Head of Development Cooperation and Tsehay Hailemichael, Senior Programme Officer for Private Sector Development. Ethiopia cabinet approving the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) and Ethiopia’s chance to host the World Economic Forum Africa in 2020 were among the updates presented to the group. The Deputy Head of Mission, Mariann Murvoll, also informed on current security situation and travel advice.
Eivind Fjeldstad from NABA also presented the Norway-Ethiopia business relation on the meeting. Norwegian business interests in Ethiopia are mainly focused on ICT, finance, real estate, agribusiness, and renewable energy. Gudleik Njå from Lærdal Global Health also gave a presentation on how their company was working in providing quality health care services in Africa.
Mehraz Rafat from Norad presented the newly launched Norwegian Digitalization strategy. Marie Nielsen from Antler presented their plan for Ethiopia and East Africa as a whole. Independent Business Accelerator (IBA-Ethiopia) informed on the plans to organize the Africa Innovation Week 2019 in Addis Ababa in collaboration with the Ministry of Innovation and Technology and the African Union from 28 October to 2 November 2019. This will serve as a platform to link up African and Nordic start-ups and accelerators with each other.
About Team Norway
Team Norway is a network-based collaboration between various public and private actors who work for Norwegian-based businesses internationally. The purpose of the cooperation is to contribute to increased value creation in the Norwegian economy through information exchange, coordination and coordinated efforts and initiatives. Norwegian businesses operating in Ethiopia or Norwegian citizens with a local businesses in Ethiopia can register to join the Team Norway group. The Embassy is open to suggestions on potential dates and topics of interests for discussions from Team Norway members for next meetings. For registration and suggestions, please contact the Embassy by sending an email to emb.addisabeba@mfa.no.
Business promotion is a top priority for the Norwegian Embassy and the type of support given to Norwegian businesses are listed on this page – Bistand til norsk næringsliv
Read more about Team Norway here.
Read more about the members of Team Norway here.
Additional information
All Norwegians coming and traveling within the country are advised to refer to our continuously updated travel advice; Etiopia-reiseinformasjon
Norwegians traveling to Ethiopia should also make sure to register themselves and the duration of their stay on; reiseregistrering.no