Ethiopia, KOICA Sign Grant Agreement of 20 Mil USD

Addis Ababa, March 8/2022 /ENA/ Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of grant agreement for two projects amounting 20 million USD was signed between Ethiopia and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) today.

State Minister of Finance, Semereta Sewasew and Country Director of KOICA Ethiopia Office, Lee Byunghwa signed  the MoU.

The MoU is signed with the objective of setting the framework for the implementation of KOICA’s 2022 grant programme, which will further contribute towards achieving Ethiopia’s development endeavours based on the Ten Years Prospective Plan and Sustainable Development Goals.

According to KOICA Ethiopia Office’s, newly established country plan for support in Ethiopia, KOICA will start two projects support from 2022 onwards with a total budget of 20 million USD. For each project 10,000,000 USD is allocated.

The first project will help enhancing the competitiveness of Leather and Leather products sector in Ethiopia by establishing well developed business incubation centre with full pledged support services to the emerging and existing small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the leather and leather products sector cluster.

The project is also expected to increase production, productivity and competitiveness of SMEs which will improve the export performance of the sector and developing well-established market and business linkages with in and out of the clusters.

The second project is intended for Community-Led Solution for Inclusive Socio-Economic Resilience towards Sustainable Peace in Conflict-Affected Areas in Ethiopia.

The project contributes to enhancing social cohesion and economic resilience of displacement-affected communities through the area-based and community-based peace building and recovery processes and increased access to sustainable livelihoods, according to Ministry of Finance.