The USAID funded VEGA Ethiopia AGOA+ project has been in operation in Ethiopia since October 2005. Over that time, it has been active in providing technical and informational assistance to Ethiopian producers looking to export to the US market. More recently, the project has been involved in or directly supported a number of other activities that are not strictly limited to the trade arena. These include the establishment of the Ethiopian American Chamber of Commerce and the innovative DCA (Development Credit Authority) which provides partial loan guarantees to women and Diaspora entrepreneurs.
On Friday, March 11, VEGA Ethiopia held an informational conference at the Sheraton Addis to brief participants on the progress of its various programs and to highlight continuing ways for its programs to assist Ethiopian businesses. In briefing attendees on the DCA (and associated DDI program), program director Sehul Tirusaw revealed that 91 applicants had attempted to access the program and that out of these, 16 had been approved for loans at the initiative’s partner banks, Bank of Abyssinia and Nib. Despite the availability of loans being severely limited by the prevailing credit crunch in the nation at present, approximately 46.5 million birr has been disbursed to applicants although still far short of the 17 million dollars allocated to the program.
IESC (implementing organization of the VEGA Ethiopia project) also took the opportunity to introduce a new program they are launching in Ethiopia, called Farmer to Farmer in which a team of international food experts are going to study the sesame production value chain and help Ethiopian farmers benefit even further from this up and coming Ethiopian export.
At a press conference later the same day, Ato Addis and Ato Sehul both expressed a determination to strengthen the program by publicizing it further and encouraging additional applicants to access the available assistance.
