The Ethiopian Investment Agency has warned it will revoke 2,497 investment permits within the next week if the businesses or owners do not report and give explanations to the agency why they are not utilizing the licenses, 2merkato.com quoted a Capital report.

The report said the agency posted a notice two weeks ago listing down the names of the companies whose investment permits would face potentially cancellation.

“We are currently going through documents of various companies and conducting an evaluation. We are checking to see if everything is done correctly. Accordingly we have put up a notice here asking companies who do not have the appropriate and necessary documents, come and report to our office,” a public relations officer at the Agency told Capital.

Some of the reasons for cancellation of the permits include, include failure to renew business licenses as well as not starting the operations for which the license is issued.

“Some of the companies acquire licenses for projects but end up failing to begin operations in the specific time provided in the law. These companies will have to provide a persuasive and acceptable reason in order to keep their license,” the public relations officer added.

The cancellation notice include both foreign and local companies in a variety of sectors, including construction, tour operation, hospitals, restaurants, consultancy, construction machinery rentals, flower farms and more.