NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Under a USAID Development Credit Authority (DCA) agreement, this program will expand commercial bank lending into under-served areas and provide the private capital needed to help farmers.

It also help businesses intensify production, and support Ethiopia’s efforts to modernize its agricultural sector, according to the press statement from the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa.

Private capital sources are essential to enable local microfinance institutions to expand lending to individuals and small businesses, particularly smallholder farmers and Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) clients.

In addition, this partnership will also support Awash Bank’s direct lending to small and medium enterprises in the agriculture sector, where access to credit remains low despite contributing 34 percent of Ethiopia’s GDP and employing approximately 70 percent of the total labor force.

Photo courtesy of Ministério do Desenvolvimento Social.