In a significant development, hotels across Ethiopia have restarted accepting full payment in US dollars from foreign passport holders for the services they provide. Aster Solomon, the president of the Addis Ababa Hotels Association, explained to Capital that the directive allowing hotels to collect service fees in US dollars from foreign nationals has been on the books for years. “The directive was already in place at the legal level, but the control was low, so that foreign nationals could only pay for the services used by the hotels where they were staying,” Aster stated. The government has now moved to tighten the controls once again, compelling hotels to accept full payments from foreign nationals in US dollars only. With the NBE’s renewed enforcement of the directive, hotels across Ethiopia have begun implementing the same, ensuring foreign guests pay the complete service fees in US dollars once again.
