A high rate of inflation, averaging 30% in 2023, forced consumers to cut down on spending on non-essential items, and even to reconsider the food they purchased to reduce their expenditure. Rx medications continued to be widely purchased under the counter in pharmacies, which negatively affected demand for OTC products.
While consumer health witnessed dynamic growth in current value terms in 2023 this was largely fuelled by a high rate of inflation. Nonetheless, demand was also supported by population growth and urbanisation.
The Tigrayan People's Liberation Front and the Ethiopian central government signed a cessation of hostilities agreement on 2 November 2022 in South Africa. With the civil war coming to an end and peace returning to Ethiopia, the economic situation in the country is expected to improve.
Despite major advances in healthcare provision since the turn of the century, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that healthcare provision in Ethiopia is still not universal, with only around 80% of the country’s population covered by the public healthcare system. There are major discrepancies between healthcare coverage in urban and rural parts of the country, while public healthcare facilities are generally underfunded and understaffed and often short of essential supplies.
Ethiopia continued to face infrastructural challenges that negatively affected the distribution of consumer health in 2023. Due to the poor state of road networks, it is difficult for distributors to reach remote areas, which adds significantly to the costs of logistics and to doing business in those areas.
The Medicines Regulatory Proclamation No 661/2009 is the primary law regulating the manufacture, distribution and sale of all pharmaceutical products, including OTC. While new products regularly enter the marketplace, they find it difficult to find a consumer base as retailers tend to stick to well-known and high-performing brands.
Under Ethiopian law, vitamins and dietary supplements are classified as food supplements. Section 10 of Regulation No 299/2013 stipulates that all individuals and companies distributing food supplements must be registered and obtain the appropriate permit.
Significant inflationary pressures and the country’s recovery from the civil war are expected to influence purchasing behaviours, including those related to consumer health products, in the forecast period.
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Understand the latest market trends and future growth opportunities for the Consumer Health industry in Ethiopia with research from Euromonitor International's team of in-country analysts – experts by industry and geographic specialisation.
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Consumer Health
It is the aggregation of OTC, Vitamins and Dietary Supplements (VDS), Sports Nutrition, and Weight Management and Wellbeing
See All of Our DefinitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Consumer Health research and analysis database.
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