Italy Unveils €182m Loan, Grant

Feb 11 , 2023


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Access to basic services such as health and education is met with a loan and grant agreement from the government of Italy worth close to 182 million euros. Last week, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Italian President Giorgia Meloni signed a joint declaration in Rome to launch the framework with a 140 million euro budget. The 100 million euros is rolled out as a loan, while the rest is a grant. According to the Prime Minister, the two officials discussed on the strong desire to foster economic ties. Dubbed "The Ethiopian-Italian Cooperation Framework", the agreement is meant to unravel economic development and job creation. Minister of Finance, Ahmed Shide and Italian Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani also signed two loan agreements last week. The first aims to lower systemic investment risk in coffee and institutional support to the Ethiopian Coffee & Tea Authority (ECTA) with a budget of 10.5 million euros while the other seeks to improve access to safe water and sanitation, promoting energy facilitation in drought-afflicted regions with 31.5 million euros.


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