Once weighed down by stalled projects, unpaid obligations and fragmented management, MIDROC Investment Group says a sweeping internal restructuring has transformed Ethiopia’s largest private conglomerate into a more disciplined, audited and expanding business group.

By Addis Insight  •  September 2026

For years, MIDROC was one of the biggest names in Ethiopian business, but size did not always translate into efficiency. The conglomerate built by billionaire investor Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi accumulated interests across agriculture, manufacturing, hospitality, energy, healthcare and real estate. Yet behind some of those assets were businesses that had struggled for years, large projects that remained unfinished and subsidiaries that continued operating despite persistent losses.

In a wide-ranging interview with Fana Broadcasting Corporate, MIDROC Investment Group CEO Jamal Ahmed described an organization that, at one stage, had become what he called an ‘empty shell’ — rich in assets but weakened by poor governance, mismanagement, debt and internal leakage.

The company now says that picture has changed dramatically. Under a new corporate structure, MIDROC has consolidated previously fragmented businesses, introduced mandatory external audits, restarted abandoned projects and expanded its workforce to more than 80,000 people. The turnaround offers a rare look inside one of Ethiopia’s most powerful private business groups — and into how a sprawling conglomerate attempts to recover after years of operational decline.

The crisis that exposed MIDROC’s weaknesses

The problems became harder to ignore after Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi was detained in Saudi Arabia in late 2017. His absence removed the central figure who had historically financed and supervised much of the business empire. According to Jamal Ahmed’s account, this exposed structural weaknesses that had accumulated over many years.

Several companies had survived largely because Al Amoudi continued injecting capital even when the businesses themselves were not generating sustainable profits. Management problems were also severe. Ahmed described incidents of asset misappropriation, weak accountability and a corporate culture in which managers were not consistently judged against financial performance.

At the same time, MIDROC was carrying large obligations to banks and tax authorities while some of its most visible projects remained unfinished. Among the group’s major challenges were unpaid tax and bank liabilities reportedly exceeding $90 million, long-delayed developments in Addis Ababa and businesses that had accumulated losses over periods approaching two decades.

According to Ahmed, only a limited number of major businesses — including Horizon Plantations and NOC Ethiopia — were operating on a fully self-sustaining basis during the worst period. That left the wider group with a difficult question: how could a conglomerate with enormous assets still struggle to generate consistent returns?

Rebuilding MIDROC around clusters

The restructuring began with a proposal to abandon the loose collection of semi-independent companies that had characterized the group for years. Instead, Jamal Ahmed proposed consolidating them under a unified corporate structure: MIDROC Investment Group.

The idea was to eliminate duplication, centralize oversight and organize businesses into major operating clusters rather than allowing subsidiaries to function as isolated entities. The group now organizes its activities around sectors including agribusiness and plantations, hospitality and real estate, manufacturing, healthcare and other strategic investments.

This restructuring also changed how performance was measured. MIDROC introduced a governance framework built around what Ahmed calls ARTO: Accountability, Responsibility, Transparency and Ownership.

Accountability means managers are expected to meet measurable performance targets. Responsibility requires businesses to comply with tax, financial and corporate obligations. Transparency is reinforced through external audits and standardized reporting. Ownership is intended to create a culture in which employees treat company assets and results as their own responsibility rather than as resources belonging to a distant shareholder.

The most significant change may have been auditing. For a conglomerate with dozens of businesses and tens of thousands of employees, mandatory external audits created a level of visibility that the group says had previously been missing. That made it easier to identify losses, track asset use and determine which companies required restructuring or closure.

From losses to billions in economic activity

MIDROC says the results became visible within several years. Its workforce has grown from roughly 47,000 employees to more than 80,000, according to figures presented by management. Annual payroll now exceeds 5 billion birr, while the group says its annual exports have reached approximately $390 million.

Its tax and other state contributions have also expanded sharply. According to Jamal Ahmed, MIDROC has contributed around 31 billion birr to the government, representing a major reversal from an earlier period when the conglomerate itself carried substantial unpaid tax obligations.

The difference is important. MIDROC’s turnaround was not based primarily on acquiring an entirely new portfolio. Much of the improvement came from attempting to extract productivity from assets the company already owned. That included one of its biggest problems: unfinished projects.

The abandoned hotel beside the African Union

One of the most visible symbols of MIDROC’s previous operational difficulties sits near the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa. The building intended to become a major international hotel had remained unfinished for years. Despite having access to bank financing, construction had stalled at around half completion.

The new management team decided to restart the project rather than abandon it. According to Ahmed, MIDROC settled outstanding legacy loans and redesigned substantial portions of the property. One major change involved removing roughly 30 presidential-style suites that management considered commercially impractical. The redesign increased the property’s overall accommodation capacity to approximately 430 rooms.

The project is now being developed as a Westin-branded hotel, placing it within Marriott International’s luxury portfolio. Its revival reflects a broader shift in MIDROC’s hospitality strategy.

Reviving Salam Health Care

Another long-delayed asset is Salam Health Care. The project traces its origins back decades and had become entangled in ownership disputes, litigation and questions over company shares. Under the restructuring, MIDROC says it recovered legal control of the asset and redesigned the original concept.

Rather than simply finishing an old healthcare project, management intends to develop Salam into a specialized tertiary hospital. The goal is partly commercial and partly tied to Ethiopia’s large outbound medical market, with thousands of patients travelling abroad each year for specialized treatment.

MIDROC argues that expanding high-end domestic medical capacity could retain part of that spending inside Ethiopia while reducing pressure on patients who currently need to travel abroad for treatment. Whether Salam can eventually achieve that ambition will depend on medical staffing, equipment, clinical standards and management — challenges that cannot be solved by construction alone.

A much larger hospitality bet

MIDROC’s hotel ambitions go well beyond the Westin project. The group is using the long-established Sheraton Addis as the foundation for a broader national hospitality portfolio. New hotels are planned or being developed in several Ethiopian cities and tourism destinations.

MIDROC says it plans to develop around 10 Marriott-branded hotels across destinations including Addis Ababa, Hawassa, Bahir Dar and Lake Langano. If completed, the expansion would significantly increase the group’s exposure to Ethiopia’s tourism and business-travel industries.

Hotels can also generate foreign currency directly from international visitors. That makes the sector particularly attractive in an economy where access to foreign exchange remains one of the biggest constraints facing private companies.

Agriculture remains central to the empire

Despite the attention given to hotels and urban developments, agriculture remains one of MIDROC’s largest and most established operating areas. Horizon Plantations has long been one of the more financially stable parts of the group, with interests including coffee, spices and large-scale commercial farming.

Agriculture also provides an important source of export earnings. That aligns MIDROC with one of Ethiopia’s central economic priorities: increasing foreign-exchange generation through exports rather than depending exclusively on domestic consumption.

However, large agricultural businesses also face rising costs, climate risks, logistics bottlenecks and security challenges in some parts of the country. For MIDROC, the next phase will therefore depend not just on expanding acreage but on raising productivity and adding more value before products leave Ethiopia.

The 80,000-person challenge

One of the most striking figures in MIDROC’s current structure is the number of people employed across its businesses. More than 80,000 employees make the group not simply a private company but a major institution in Ethiopia’s labor market.

That scale is an advantage, but it is also one of the reasons governance became so important. Managing dozens of businesses and tens of thousands of workers without centralized financial controls can quickly create opportunities for waste, duplication and fraud. MIDROC’s new leadership appears to have concluded that the only way to manage an empire of that size is to make financial discipline part of the corporate culture.

Ahmed has repeatedly emphasized that the restructuring was aimed at ending what he described as a ‘looting mentality.’ That makes MIDROC’s transformation as much a governance story as a financial one.

“Money can build a business empire. It cannot substitute for governance.”

Corporate philanthropy built into the model

MIDROC also says it now formally allocates 10 percent of net profits toward social and community initiatives. The group’s activities include investments in food production, water infrastructure, schools, housing and community services around some of its agricultural operations.

One of the more visible examples has been involvement in large-scale bakery projects, including the Sheger Bread initiative. At agricultural sites such as Bebeka, MIDROC has also supported community services and subsidized food access.

For the company, these programs are presented as part of a broader belief that large private businesses need to maintain a social license to operate. They can also serve a strategic purpose, particularly in remote agricultural and industrial areas where workforce stability depends heavily on relations with surrounding communities.

Can MIDROC become a model for Ethiopia’s private sector?

MIDROC’s restructuring arrives at an important moment for Ethiopia. The country is attempting to move away from an economic model dominated by state-owned enterprises and tightly controlled markets toward one in which private capital plays a larger role. Foreign-exchange reforms, privatization initiatives and changes in investment policy are intended to accelerate that transition.

Jamal Ahmed has argued that MIDROC’s recent performance demonstrates what Ethiopian private enterprise can achieve when capital is combined with stronger governance and professional management. The group’s export earnings, tax contributions and employment footprint give weight to that argument.

But MIDROC also illustrates the risks of concentrating enormous assets inside a conglomerate that depends too heavily on a single owner. The earlier crisis demonstrated that abundant capital could conceal weak businesses for years. As long as Sheikh Al Amoudi continued providing financing, loss-making subsidiaries could remain alive without confronting their underlying problems. When that support became uncertain, the weaknesses were suddenly exposed.

The test is what happens next

MIDROC’s transformation remains a work in progress. The company still operates in an economy facing inflation, foreign-exchange pressures, security problems and infrastructure constraints. Some of its most ambitious projects have yet to open or reach full commercial performance.

The Westin hotel must prove it can generate returns after years of delay. Salam Health Care must move from redevelopment into functioning medical care. MIDROC’s national hotel expansion will require substantial capital and a growing tourism market. And the organization must demonstrate that the governance reforms introduced during the turnaround can survive leadership changes over the long term.

That may ultimately be the biggest test. MIDROC’s earlier problems were not caused by a shortage of assets. The group owned farms, factories, hotels, land and major companies. What it lacked was a system capable of turning those assets into reliable economic output.

The new MIDROC Investment Group is attempting to build that system. If the numbers presented by its leadership continue to hold, the transformation represents one of the most significant corporate turnarounds in Ethiopia’s recent private-sector history.

From an empire once described internally as an ‘empty shell,’ MIDROC is now trying to become something very different: a professionally managed conglomerate capable of turning dormant capital into productive businesses. In an Ethiopian economy searching for a larger role for private enterprise, that transition could matter far beyond MIDROC itself.