A four billion Birr fund that promotes startups was revealed by the Development Bank of Ethiopia last week. According to the President, Yohannes Ayalew (PhD), the new fund is expected to provide seed money for promising ideas and continued credit provisions to firms which manage to "graduate" into full-fledged businesses. The new financing mechanism would contain a televised process through which applicants will pitch their ideas to judges from the private sector, offering up equity, Yohannes disclosed during a discussion panel hosted by the Ethiopian Youth Entrepreneurs Association, held at the recently opened science museum near the Grand Palace. The founder of Kifya Technologies, Munir Duri, moderated the panel that discussed bottlenecks of access to finance for young entrepreneurs while the Minister of Innovation & Technology, Belete Molla (PhD), spoke to experts from the Intelligence Network Security Agency (INSA) cyber talent program who displayed their products at the museum. With 300 companies already registered, the policy bank will enter as the sole investor if none of the judges decides to buy equity in the pitched idea, with prospects to withdraw in a couple of years following the companies' growth, according to Yohannes. Muhidin Shefa, financial inclusivity director at the central bank, revealed that a proclamation expanding the portfolio of collaterals to include intellectual property is under work. According to Muhidin, the move is part of the "Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda" that aims to foster the private sector's role shortly.
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