Birr Metrics
10 September 2026
Ethiopia has opened talks with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank over financing for Bishoftu International Airport, widening its search for lenders to cover an estimated 8.75-billion-US-dollar external funding requirement for Africa’s most expensive aviation project.
Finance Minister Ahmed Shide and Ethiopian Airlines Group Chief Executive Mesfin Tasew presented the 12.5-billion-US-dollar project to AIIB President Zou Jiayi as a regional transport, trade and logistics hub rather than merely a replacement for Addis Ababa Bole International Airport.
The talks have not yet produced a disclosed financing commitment. However, bringing AIIB into the funding negotiations could give Ethiopia access to another major multilateral lender as it attempts to assemble one of the largest infrastructure-financing packages ever pursued in Africa...
AIIB Ethiopia Bishoftu Airport 8.75 Billion Funding Gap - Birr Metrics - 10 September 2026
