The government is negotiating with the minority investor in National Tobacco Enterprises (NTE) to sell its controlling stake in the monopoly, an Addis Ababa newspaper reported.

If talks on sale of the government’s 78 per cent stake with Sheba Investment fail, the state would ask for bids on the tobacco monopoly, The Reporter said on its English language website. Sheba Investment is owned by non-Ethiopians and holds the remaining 22 per cent of NTE, an entity that both produces and imports tobacco products.