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East African Holding S.C.
East African Holding is a large Ethiopian conglomerate that makes cement, drinks, soap, and other everyday products.
East African Holding is one of Ethiopia's biggest homegrown conglomerates, a company that makes many of the basic things people and builders buy every day. Its best-known business is cement: it owns National Cement S.C., which sells the Derba brand and is one of the country's major cement producers. Cement is the powder that gets mixed with sand and water to make concrete, and in a country that is still building roads, apartments, and factories, it is about as essential as it gets.
Beyond cement, the group makes consumer goods. It produces edible oil, soap, detergent, and other household items through its manufacturing arm, and it also has a beverages business. These are the cheap, everyday products families buy week after week, so the money comes in steadily rather than in big bursts. The customers are ordinary shoppers, wholesalers, and construction companies, and they choose these brands mostly on price and availability. The business traces back to the late 1990s, when the Endowment Fund for the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) set it up as an investment vehicle. Over time it grew by buying and building factories. Its founder-linked past has not always been simple: the group has faced legal trouble, including a case in which a court ordered it to pay a large sum to a bank. In 2024 the government moved to take over the company under a new law aimed at entities tied to the former ruling party. That makes the ownership situation the single biggest thing to watch, because who controls the company decides where its cement and soap money goes.
So the simple picture: East African Holding sells cement to builders and soap, oil, and drinks to households, and it earns its money from those repeat purchases and construction sales. But right now its fate is less about products and more about politics and who ends up holding the keys.
Saved answer · last researched 10 Nov 2026