Ethiopia and France have signed two grant agreements totaling €20 million for financing the national palace renovation and for the development programme of the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the agriculture sector.
The agreements were signed on Thursday 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 programme 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 programme, which is part of the Agriculture Commercialization Cluster (ACC) programme that has been supported by other development partners, such as the Danish and Dutch embassies and the European Union.
The national palace renovation programme is introduced based on the joint declaration entered between the government of Ethiopia and France on March 12, 2019, on heritage cooperation, according to the Ministry of Finance.
The agriculture MSMEs development programme is designed in line with Ethiopia’s Home-grown economic reform programme and the national development plan so as to strengthen 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 promote productivity and revenue generation for 1.8 million small farmers and 1,340 agri-MSMEs.
MG/GIK/APA