The International Finance Corporation (IFC) signed an agreement with NIB International Bank to make an additional 10 million dollars available towards helping farmer cooperatives in Ethiopia on Oct 13.

The IFC and NIB have a risk sharing arrangement already in place to help forty five thousand coffee farmers in 62 cooperatives in Oromia and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Regional States. The two financial organizations have worked together to set up a 10 million dollar facility for coffee farmers in the past according to Amerga Kassa President of NIB. 

Techno Serve an international, non-profit funded by Bill Gates is involved in the arrangements to support the coffee farmers and farmers’ cooperatives said Amerga. The Non Governmental Organization, Techno Serve, has made available an investment capital of five million birr and working capital of 27.5 million birr for Technoserve clients’ and an arrangement for a guarantee by a foreign bank which has so far gone well in 2009 and 2010 according to Amerga.

Techno Serve is supplying technical assistance in this manner because it has had positive with IFC and because it believes that financing agricultural business can make significant contributions to support national growth and development according to Adamou Labara.  

The IFC has seen positive outcomes from this arrangement because risk sharing has been decreased to 35% for NIB and 65% for itself said Labara.

He added that IFC has seen positive outcomes from this arrangement because the risk sharing has been reduced to 65 percent for IFC and 35 percent for NIB.  

Source: Capital