Ethiopia considers micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to be the backbone of economic growth and job creation as the country strives to achieve its ambitious goal of becoming a middle-income country by 2025.
In Ethiopia, green entrepreneurs are proving to be key actors in technology, innovation and the creative arts, promoting efficiency and productivity, creating new products and services that meet people’s needs, generating green jobs and enhancing livelihoods while protecting the environment. To grow green businesses, however, entrepreneurs require an enabling policy environment, capacity development and greater awareness of the economic, social and environmental opportunities for greening their businesses. The Government of Ethiopia has been facilitating access to credit and providing capacity-building and other technical support to encourage organized young people and women to establish MSMEs, with the principal aim of creating job opportunities and reducing unemployment. These MSMEs are candidates for awareness-raising, capacity-building, technical support and credit or financial support to assist with greening their businesses.
SWITCH Africa Green is complementing Ethiopia’s transition towards a green, climate-resilient economy by supporting the uptake of innovative green business and sustainable consumption and production practices in the priority sectors. Activities on the ground focus on growing green businesses, capturing market opportunities for resource-efficient green goods and services and supporting local green entrepreneurs in starting up and developing green business ventures. The MSMEs involved in SWITCH Africa Green projects in Ethiopia benefit from technical advice on eco-innovation and aspects of sustainable consumption and production, such as resource efficiency, integrated waste management, energy efficiency and industrial symbiosis, as well as general business advice on management, including financial management.
