Germany Offers €100 Mln to Support Ethiopia’s COVID-19 MSPRP

Addis Ababa September 30/2020 (ENA) Ethiopia and Germany have signed a 100 million Euro or approximately 4.3 billion birr worth grant agreement today. 

Minister of Finance, Ahmed Shide and Germany Ambassador to Ethiopia Stephan Auer signed the agreement in Addis Ababa.

The grant deal aims at supporting the implementation of National COVID-19 Multi-Secretarial Preparedness and Response Plan (MSPRP) of Ethiopia.

Upon signing the agreement, Minister of Finance Ahimed Shide said the government of Ethiopia will implement economic resilient building measures to ensure the continuity of key economic functions and the National Health Sector Response plan to enhance the capacity of the heath sector to maintain the response to CVOID-19.

He added that the support will also help to expands social protection measures to cover more vulnerable populations, particularly the people requiring food aid and essential services.

As a complement to the government of Ethiopia’s effort in mitigating the crisis of the pandemic, he said, this financial support helps to contain the spread of COVID-19 and cope with the impact of the pandemic, which will enable the country to quickly embark on economic recovery.

A country like Ethiopia cannot carry the entire burden of financing its social-economic response to COVID-19, he said.

“Thus, the emergency financing from the Government of Germany will complement the government efforts to realize the National COVID-19 Multi-Secretarial Preparedness and Response Plan”, he said.

Germany Ambassador to Ethiopia, Stephan Auer said the Government of Germany is keen to join Ethiopia’s effort in realizing its economic development.

Supporting the national OVID-19 Multi Secretarial Preparedness and Response plan is one of the commitments of the government of Germany to effectively respond to the COVID-19 emergency, the ambassador noted.