Sunrise over Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
When we chose Ethiopia as the home of our factory, many people felt we were making a mistake based on their assumptions of business in that part of the world. We were told many times that other parts of the world could make our shoes cheaper, that we were hurting our bottom line. Despite how they felt, we chose Ethiopia based on the potential we saw, and the impact we could have through leading by example. Seven years later, we feel vindicated by the fact that Ethiopia is now the
fastest growing large economy on Earth, and the future looks promising.
The Semien Mountains of Ethiopia
Ethiopia’s economy was traditionally agriculture based, and it was instrumental in
reducing poverty by 7% between 2005 and 2011. Ethiopia’s road network has also doubled in a similar time period, which allows more farmers to transport their goods in country to maximize profits. Despite this sector’s success, it is vulnerable to the environment, and therefore can’t be relied on to solve all the countries financial woes.
A view of downtown Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
To combat this, the Ethiopian government has enacted several “New Deal” style infrastructure projects that have
helped stimulate the economy and attract foreign business such as Oliberté. A combination of this internal investment, success in agriculture and the introduction of new business has made Ethiopia the fastest rising economy on Earth.
Our factory grounds in Addis Ababa
Despite their continual positive growth in GDP,
the average wage in Ethiopia still needs to catch up. We saw this as the perfect opportunity to establish a factory, which would benefit from the improved infrastructure while allowing us to give back by offering a fair wage to our workers. The industrial revolution took years to economically develop the West, we can take those lessons learned as a model for the successful development of Ethiopia and the rest of Africa.
Inside our factory in Addis Ababa
Success in Ethiopia has taken many other forms in the past few years, such as an incredible
4,280% increase in secondary education in the past decade and a half, and one of the largest reductions of extreme poverty in Africa in the past two decades.
Some of our team outside the Addis Ababa factory
There’s no true end on the path to success, only milestones. We at Oliberté are happy to be a part of a success story in the making, and we’re endlessly appreciative of the customers who made it all possible. With your continued support, we can serve as an example for other businesses who would otherwise turn elsewhere.
