Why Ethiopia Is No Longer Africa's Asian Tiger

A bellwether for Africa and global economic growth, Ethiopia's erstwhile success is now crippled by succession failure and its consequences.

Monument to the 1896 Battle of Adwa, wherein Ethiopia triumphed against colonial Italian troops, in Addis Ababa. Photo by Gift Habeshaw.

Until recently, Ethiopia was lauded as one of Africa’s greatest 21st century success stories. Its rapidly growing economy and political stability led many to christen it Africa’s own “Asian Tiger.”¹ The World Economic Forum called Ethiopia “Africa’s new growth engine.”² The title of a Bloomberg op-ed declared that “Ethiopia already is the ‘China of Africa.’”³ As far back as 2014, Bill Gates asked on Twitter why we “still think about famine when we think of Ethiopia,” since the country’s economy was “growing faster than China’s.”⁴ The ascendance of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in 2018 was met with jubilation from Western capitals, financial institutions, and international organizations, with his promises of peace, liberalization, and democratization creating a perception of Ethiopian exceptionalism.⁵ In 2019, Abiy Ahmed was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for officially ending a stalemated war with neighboring Eritrea.