invoicing as AfDB warns domestic revenue gaps threaten economic transformation

Ethiopia lost an estimated US$24.6 billion through trade mis-invoicing between 2013 and 2022, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB) , underscoring how illicit financial flows continue to erode public revenues needed to finance infrastructure, industrialisation and long-term economic transformation. The findings, published in the bank’s East Africa Economic Outlook 2026 , identify trade mis-invoicing as a major structural weakness at a time when Ethiopia faces rising debt obligations, growing investment needs and ongoing macroeconomic reforms.