Saudi authorities have arrested Mohammed
Hussein Al-Amoudi a duel national with Saudi and Ethiopian citizen and
is reportedly the second richest Saudi, after Prince Al-Waleed bin
Talal.
While bin Talal’s arrest has gained most
media attention. Al-Amoudi’s arrest is especially important because it
could potentially destabilize the economy of an entire country,
according to Middle East Eye.
Al-Amoudi, who is also known as “the
Sheikh”, has invested in almost every sector of Ethiopia’s economy,
including hotels, agriculture and astrology.
According to a leaked diplomatic cable from 2008 “the Sheikh’s influence on the Ethiopian economy cannot be underestimated.”
In the nearly ten years a since then it
has become even harder to estimate the exact value of Al-Amoudi’s total
investment in Ethiopia, which is among the fastest developing countries
in Africa. One analyst estimated the value of the Sheikh’s investment at
$3.4 billion, which represents 4.7 per cent of Ethiopia’s current GDP.
Another said his companies employ about
100,000 people, which represent 14 per cent of the Ethiopian private
sector, according to the latest Labour Force Survey, 2013. However,
World Bank analysts warn that these figures might have markedly
increased over the past four years as the sector has developed since
then.
Al-Amoudi has occupied the front pages of
Ethiopia’s most prominent magazines since his arrest. News agencies have
covered news of his detention, including the rumours that have been
circulating on social media websites, as breaking news.
“They are now panicking” said Henok
Gabisa, a Visiting Academic Fellow at Washington and Lee University
School of Law in Virginia and an Ethiopian researcher.
In the few days after Al-Amoudi’s arrest,
Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn felt the need to hold his
first press conference in two months. During the conference, he answered
questions related to Al-Amoudi and stressed that the government does
not believe that this will affect Al-Amoudi’s investments in Ethiopia.
An Ethiopian Investment Authority official
rejected the notion that Al Amoudi’s arrest might create chaos in the
government, “The country’s economy is not based on one investor. For
heaven’s sake, we are 100 million people, how can we depend on one
investment?! This is funny.”
“Investments outside Saudi Arabia that are
owned by the Sheikh have not been yet affected by these changes,” said
Tim Pendry, Al-Amoudi’s spokesman in the UK.
Although they acknowledge that Chinese
people who are heavily investing in Ethiopia have now a much larger
stake than Al-Amoudi in Ethiopia, analysts suggest that even if the
government is not in a state of panic at present, there would definitely
be future concerns about the extent to which a conflict with Saudi
Arabia would affect the Ethiopian economy.
Dr Awol Allo, a law lecturer at the Keele University, said:
He is a person whose presence or absence might affect the country’s economy.
He added: “He has an impact and in light
of all the problems that are associated with his investments in the
country, this makes him an influential figure.”
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