Ethiopia will receive $2.9 billion in a three-year aid package to help economic reform, the International Monetary Fund has confirmed.

The country -- which has one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa -- will receive $308.4 million immediately, the IMF said in a statement on Friday.

"The program aims to support the authorities' implementation of their ambitious reform agenda," the Fund's first deputy managing director David Lipton said in a statement.

The funding would aim to ease foreign exchange shortages, as well as helping to reform state-owned enterprises, and safeguard financial stability, he added.

Lipton noted that Ethiopia's rapid growth over the past decade has reduced poverty and improved living standards, but that such a model -- driven by public investment -- had "reached its limits".

A financial agreement with the Fund will support the authorities' plan, helping to catalyze the funding of other partners.