Agricultural entrepreneurship: AfDB approves $43 million to support Ethiopian SMEs

The African Development Bank (AfDB) wants to support entrepreneurship in the agricultural sector in Ethiopia. Through the African Development Fund (ADF), its concessional financing window, it has just approved a grant of $42.86 million to implement the Agri-MPME Development for Jobs (AMD4J) programme. The recently launched initiative aims to encourage the creation of sustainable jobs in the agricultural sector through improved access to finance and high-quality business development support for young people and women in agri-SMEs.

In all, more than 8,000 SMEs operating in this sector will benefit from this programme, which is based on two pillars. “The first pillar aims to increase access to finance and non-financial services for the agro-industry by strengthening the institutions of the main non-financial services (NFS) institutions, including the Institute for the Development of Entrepreneurship,” says the AfDB.

The second pillar focuses on the design, establishment and deployment of the Youth Entrepreneurship Investment Bank (YEIB). This will involve increasing the quality of financial and non-financial support services, improving the coordination of instruments for the benefit of young entrepreneurs, deploying innovative instruments and strengthening and integrating the players in the ecosystem. AMD4J will also work with the African Adaptation Acceleration Programme (AAAP) to support the strengthening of adaptation-focused businesses through capacity building and empowerment in this country on the Horn of Africa.

In addition to improving the food situation in this West African country, these various initiatives should also improve the Ethiopian economy, given that agriculture is its mainstay. Agriculture, which is mainly rain-fed, is regularly battered by drought, soil regression and degradation linked to overgrazing and deforestation.

Inès Magoum