Addis Ababa, July 16, 2020 (FBC) –Ethiopia and France have signed two grant agreements amounting to €20 million to finance the national palace renovation and the agriculture micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) development program.
The agreements were signed today by Ahmed Shide, Ethiopia’s Minister of Finance and Ms. Valerie TEHIO, Country director of the French Development Agency (AFD).
The first grant agreement amounting to €12 million will be used to partially finance phase I program of the renovation and opening of the national palace to the public.
The second grant agreement amounting to €8 million will be used to support the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) MSMEs development program which is part of the Agriculture Commercialization Cluster (ACC) program that has been supported by other development partners, such as the Danish and Dutch embassies and the European Union.
The national palace renovation program is introduced based on the joint declaration entered between the government of Ethiopia and French on March 12, 2019, on heritage cooperation, according to the Ministry of Finance.
The agriculture MSMEs development program is designed in line with the Ethiopia’s Home-grown economic reform program and the national development plan so as to strengthening Ethiopian agribusiness through diversifying their economic model, developing their productivity capacity and creating the conditions for a sustainable economic development.
The project is expected to develop productivity and revenue generation for 1.8 million small farmers and 1,340 agri-MSMEs.