
Radar | Aug 10,2019
November 27 , 2018
By TEMESGEN MULUGETA ( FORTUNE STAFF WRITER )
Ethiopia signed a grant agreement for 123 million dollars with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to be used in support of basic services.
The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Finance between Finance Minister Ahmed Shide and Gabriel Negatu, regional director of AfDB, on Friday, November 23, 2018.
The grant will be disbursed in two phases to regional governments and weredas and will be administered under a blocked account.
The areas of focus for the support are health, education, water and sanitation services. The grant is intended to supplement the Basic Services Transformation Program, which has been under implementation in Ethiopia for the past three years.
“The government will continue to work toward enhanced accountability and transparency in public service delivery, thereby strengthening the effectiveness of the program,” said Ahmed.
This support brings the Bank’s total commitment to Ethiopia to 1.74 billion dollars, which has been channelled to energy, transport, water supply and sanitation, agriculture, governance and the private sector.
A great deal of the multilateral development finance institution’s operations across the continent is dedicated to improving the standard of living, increasing accessibility of electricity and industrialisation.
In the same week, a concessional loan agreement amounting to 30 million Euros was also signed with the European Investment Bank, while another grant agreement was signed with the Danish government for 150 million dollars. Ahmed signed the former agreement with Werner Hoyer (PhD), president of the European Investment Bank.
The agreement with the EIB is aimed at supporting the Women Entrepreneurship Development Project by providing access to financial services and loans for micro and small-scale enterprises, while the grant by the Danish government will be utilised for the implementation of the Danish Country Programme that runs for half a decade.
The latter will cover the improvement of value chains in agriculture, food security, nutrition and climate resilience.
Getachew Yirga, an assistant professor at Bahir Dar University’s College of Business & Economics, believes that this financial support is coming at the right time as the country requires a capital injection.
“The recent political reform has played a part in influencing their support and working even more closely with the government,” he says. “The support can make a difference if implemented properly.”
In 2018, the World Bank pledged 3.3 billion dollars to Ethiopia, which is over three times higher than the Bank’s commitment the previous fiscal year, while the government targeted this fiscal year to cover over 19 billion Br of the budget from external assistance and almost 33 billion Br of its budget from loans.
PUBLISHED ON
Nov 27,2018 [ VOL
19 , NO
970]
Radar | Aug 10,2019
Fortune News | Feb 01,2020
Sunday with Eden | Oct 16,2020
Commentaries | Dec 28,2019
Radar | Jul 18,2020
Fortune News | Nov 29,2020
Radar | Jun 20,2020
Fortune News | Mar 12,2020
Radar | Dec 19,2020
January 16 , 2021
It was a sunny day on September 12, 1974. A machine gun mounted on top of a tank was...
January 3 , 2021 . By ABDUREZAK LESMAN
Women wearing netela, a white cotton garment with woven coloured borders, and men in...
December 26 , 2020 . By MAYA MISIKIR
Black and white markings on their legs and large semi-circular rimmed horns that stre...
December 12 , 2020
Dietrich Rogge, founder and CEO of Rockstone, a German-based real estate developer an...
January 16 , 2021
It was a sunny day on September 12, 1974. A machine gun mounted on top of a tank was...
January 9 , 2021
There is something curious about elections that have been conducted in Ethiopia since...
January 2 , 2021
One by one, Workneh Gebeyehu (PhD), executive secretary of the Intergovernmental Auth...
December 26 , 2020
It is refreshing to see a publicised high-level government meeting become somewhat co...
Put your comments here