A signing ceremony of a loan and grant agreements took place on June 6 at the Ministry of Finance between Ahmed Shide, Ethiopian Minister of Finance, Mr. Ignace Monkam-Daverat, the French Agency for Development (AFD) Country Director and Frederic Bontems, Ambassador of France to Ethiopia and to the African Union.
This support is the result of the joint declaration of intent signed between AFD and the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron in Ethiopia on March 12th, 2019.
Through these two agreements, a 100 million euros financing has been provided by AFD to support Ethiopia’s implementation of its ambitious economic reforms. Among this financing, 85 million is provided through a Public Policy concessional loan, and 15 million is provided as a grant for the global technical assistance program.
The Public Policy Loan will aim to support the Government of Ethiopia in the implementation of GTP II economic reforms by focusing on maximizing finance for development, improving the business environment, and improving the management, transparency, and accountability of public enterprises. It will be complementary to the World Bank Ethiopian Growth and Competitiveness Development Policy Financing (DPF).
This Public Policy Loan will be coupled with a grant-funded technical assistance program that would support key reform actors such as the Ministry of Finance, the PPP Directorate General and the Public Enterprise Holding Administration Agency. Part of this technical assistance program will be directly implemented by the Ethiopian Government, while another part will be channeled through Expertise France, the French public agency for international technical assistance, and as a contribution to the Multi-Donor Trust Fund managed by the World Bank.
The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) is the French bilateral development bank, which has been working for more than 70 years implementing French development-aid policy.
