September 26, 2012
At its September meeting, OPIC’s Board of Directors kept the agency’s focus trained on priority sectors – renewable resources; food security and safe drinking water; and small and medium size businesses (SMEs) – and added another: the growing middle class in emerging markets, which stand to transform developing countries in the coming years. Be it Africa, where 100 million households Read more…
August 31, 2012
It is fitting that the focus of this year’s World Water Week is the connection between water security and food security. It has been an unusually dry summer throughout much of the U.S., and a drought in even a single major food-producing country poses an additional threat to world food prices, which are already at an all-time high. Even before Read more…
August 30, 2012 How one appliance can saves lives, empower women, and reduce pollution in the developing world. By Mimi Alemayehou Nearly every mother’s daily routine includes making meals for her children no matter where on this planet she happens to live. In the U.S., we have a range of easy, efficient appliances to choose from when preparing a meal – stovetop, oven, Read more…
August 20, 2012
In 2011, OPIC provided a $1.9 million loan to Broad Cove Ecohomes, Liberia, the U.S. developer of middle-income homes in Liberia, where years of civil war had resulted in a wave of migration to the capital city of Monrovia, and left a severe shortage of affordable housing. In addition to its plans to build 80 single-family homes and adjacent community Read more…
August 17, 2012
Housing construction at the site of Broad Cove Ecohomes, Liberia outside of Monrovia. Broad Cove is using an OPIC loan to build moderately-priced houses in a region where affordable housing is virtually nonexistent. Broad Cove is using renewable and locally-sourced materials including bricks made from compressed earth and cement which will keep the houses naturally cool.
August 13, 2012
Workers at the FAIM company in Rwanda begin planting new, virus-free banana plant seedlings. These seedling will help farmers boost their farm production, their incomes, and the local food supply. In Rwanda, deficient seed and plant stocks hinder food production and impair the health and nutrition of communities that depend on local food. For example, the use of diseased plants Read more…
August 07, 2012
OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield at U.S.-South Africa Business Partnership Summit. OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield at U.S.-South Africa Business Partnership Summit with The Honorable Robert Hormats, Undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy & the Environment, U.S. Department of State; The Honorable Fred Hochberg, Chairman and President, Export-Import Bank of the United States; Mr. Paul Talley, Chief Operating Read more…
August 03, 2012
Members of the Kifaru Youth Group, a microfinance loan group based in the Nairobi suburb of Kawangware, meets in June to update their finances. The group is supported with microloans from Equity Bank’s Kawangware branch, which opened in 2007 and has since seen its customer base grow from 5000 members to 80,000. “Kawangware is a slum that is becoming a Read more…
July 27, 2012
OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield told Congress on Wednesday July 25 that Africa presented extensive investment and development opportunities but that U.S. businesses remain underrepresented on the continent. During the panel discussion, Embracing Africa’s Market Potential, before the Africa Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Littlefield described how OPIC supports long-term U.S. investments in Africa through political risk insurance, Read more…
July 27, 2012
The head agronomist at the Forestry Agricultural Investment Management (FAIM) farm in Rwamagana, Rwanda. FAIM is applying its plant propagation technology to improve crop yields, and obtained a loan from OPIC in 2012 to support its work in Rwanda, the most densely populated country in Africa, where many families suffer from food insecurity and malnutrition. While a majority of Rwandans are Read more…
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