The 12th edition of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Africon 2015 Conference was launched on September 15, 2015, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the theme “Green Innovation for African Renaissance”.
A total of 108,750 poor rural households in four regions of Ethiopia are expected to benefit from a financial agreement signed today between the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Ethiopia to boost small-scale irrigation schemes.
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.
The International Finance Corporation, private sector arm of the World Bank, urged Ethiopian businesses to ask for more funding. Very few Ethiopian projects are receiving help from IFC according to Jean Philippe Prosper, IFC director for Eastern and Southern Africa.
The IFC is interested in investing in agro-industry, primarily coffee, as well as in the areas of banking, mining and leasing he said in a meeting with some of the larger Ethiopian businesses this week. The IFC plans to address concerns, in regards to the long term viability of funding from the IFC, raised by the business community during the discussions said Mr. Prosper.
The International Finance Corporation is expected to make 85 million US dollars available in financing to private businesses in Ethiopia according to Adamou Labara, IFC Resident Representative in Ethiopia.
The IFC Ethiopia office has already provided 85 million US dollars to businesses over the past two and a half years.
The 85 million in the IFC portfolio is minimal in comparison to the size and potential of the Ethiopian economy said Labara.
