Ethio Lease, the first private and foreign-owned equipment leasing company in the country, has presented 85 combine harvesters to different beneficiaries including the Ethiopian Agricultural Business Corporation. With a total investment of more than 16 million dollars, Ethio Lease purveyed the equipment during an event held in Bishoftu. It will benefit the equivalent of 180,000 smallholder farmers, reduce harvest losses to the tune of 66 million dollars annually, and create or sustain 850 direct and 34,000 indirect jobs, according to the company's vice president of marketing & sales, Degol Gossaye. The company had first leased 60 tractors to farmers in different parts of the country when it started its operations in August 2019. To date, it has signed lease agreements with more than 100 customers for over 200 units of various machinery. It is a subsidiary company of Africa Asset Finance Company Inc. (AAFC), which was launched in 2017 to address equipment leasing and asset-backed lending demands on the continent.