Amrin Ahmed, who is in her early 20s, is a self-described businesswoman. Growing up in the culture of a family-owned business, she started selling cosmetics and women's products while she was still in college.

Soon after graduating from Debre Birhan University in civil engineering three years ago, she set up a business with an initial capital of 50,000 Br. From her shop in Bole on Cameroon Street, Amrin started selling women’s clothes, shoes and cosmetic products.

“Business was good, and we sold out of everything pretty quickly,” Amrin says.

She bought her merchandise from importers or ordered them from Dubai, China or Thailand.

Business has soured since, however, because she has not been able to get products that she used to carry in the past.

“My shop depends directly on imported goods and, consequently, on foreign exchange,” she said. “It is not only a problem with supply but demand as well. I am making less than half of what I used to the previous year.”

With limited items displayed in her shop, she has been forced to increase prices of what little remains to sell.

The foreign exchange crunch is not a problem confined to small businesses but is affecting large companies that are feeling the effect of a situation that is not letting up.

Dan Techno Craft, which assembles elevators and escalators and employs 450 people, is one of many local companies whose businesses are being severely affected by this problem. It has been a year since the company has accessed foreign currency from banks.

“The biggest struggle has been the import of spare parts for machinery that needs maintenance,” said Daniel Mebratu, founder and manager of Dan Techno Craft, which has been forced to cease operations several times in the past. “Even if we need a spare part that costs as little as 1,000 dollars, we are forced to wait.”

These problems are occurring despite the fact that the nation’s forex reserve has grown to cover 2.6 months of imports from only three weeks in the same period the previous fiscal year, according to the National Bank of Ethiopia.

Despite long-held plans to increase forex by bolstering revenue from the export of goods, the external sector has not accounted for this growth.

It is grants and donations that have raised reserve levels, as Yinager Dessie (PhD), governor of the central bank, stated to parliament late last month while presenting the eight-month performance of Ethiopia’s economy.

One of the most important sources of revenue for the government has continued to be remittances, which has reached 3.82 billion dollars in the first eight months of this fiscal year. It increased by 11.9pc compared to the same period the previous year, a rise that the central bank attributes to the diaspora’s positive view of the political changes in the country.

Foreign exchange that amounted to 2.6 billion dollars was secured from loans and grants this fiscal year. During the first six months of this fiscal year, 1.4 billion dollars was disbursed by multilateral institutions in the form of grants and aid, which was almost double the amount obtained during the same period the previous fiscal year.

The government’s treasury also received over half a billion dollars from bilateral sources in the same period. The aggregate sum from both sources stood 14pc higher than the previous year.