Increasing car ownership in Ethiopia

In a bid to increase car ownership in Ethiopia and build a viable automotive industry, the Ethiopian government is opening its doors to international car makers and offering tax breaks to encourage them to set up shop in the country.

At the moment, the ratio of cars to people in Ethiopia is 2 cars to 1,000 people - one of the lowest rates of car ownership in the world.

There are only 600,000 registered cars in Ethiopia and 84% are taxis.

Most of the cars on the road are secondhand, imported from Gulf states and heavily taxed on import by the government.