Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Friday appointed State Minister of Finance Eyob Tekalign as the new governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia, following the departure of Mamo Mihretu earlier this month.
Since taking office in 2018, Abiy has sought to liberalise the tightly controlled economy of Africa’s second-most populous nation, introducing reforms aimed at modernising its financial system.
Mamo oversaw major changes at the central bank, including the flotation of the birr and the decision to open Ethiopia’s financial sector to foreign banks.
Eyob, who has served as state minister of finance since 2018, previously headed the National Planning Commission. He sits on several boards, among them the central bank, Ethiopian Investment Holdings, EthioTelecom and Ethiopian Electric Power, according to his LinkedIn profile.
A graduate of the University of Maryland, Eyob holds a doctorate focusing on Ethiopia’s political economy since the end of the 1991 civil war.
“Over the past seven years, Dr. Eyob has been at the forefront of economic reform in Ethiopia, including the negotiation of external debt restructuring and tax reforms,” said independent analyst Abdulmenan Mohammed.
“He should appreciate the complexity of the responsibility he is taking. Inflation is still in double digits, the market-based exchange rate system is in a precarious situation, and the interest-based monetary policy framework is under implementation,” Abdulmenan added.
