Ethiopia signs deal with Turkish firm for gas exploration, gold, fertilizer production

By Andrew Wasike

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) – Ethiopia’s Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas announced the signing of three key memorandums of understanding (MOUs) Tuesday with a Turkish company dealing with natural gas, gold and fertilizer.

“Today, we have signed three MOUs with Calik Holding and its subsidiary companies to cooperate in natural gas exploration and development, (a) fertilizer plant and gold production,” Takele Uma Banti, the Minister for Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas, said in a statement.

The Turkish company will be able to invest in the development of a fertilizer manufacturing plant in Ethiopia and engage in mining activities in the country’s rich untapped gold mining industry, which the government has been calling on investors to come and explore.

On June 15 this year, the Ministry of Mines announced that it had revoked 972 licenses to bring reforms to the industry, saying the mining companies did not comply with the terms of their exploration and production licenses and engaged in illegal trading.

Also in June, Takele announced that Ethiopia had earned $513.9 million from gold exports through the National Bank of Ethiopia in the past 11 months.

Türkiye considers Ethiopia a key economic and investment partner.

According to Türkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, while the number of Turkish companies investing in Ethiopia in 2003 was only one and the number of employed people was only five, Turkish businesspeople have become one of the largest private-sector employers in Ethiopia by employing more than 20,000 Ethiopians with approximately 200 Turkish companies. The total investment volume has surpassed $2 billion.