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The OPIC Blog
Featured photo: Supporting small businesses in AfricaFebruary 08, 2013In Nairobi, Kenya, Equity Bank CEO Dr. James Mwangi (center) introduces OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield to Equity Bank agent Maureen Wambugu (right). One of the bank’s community branches is surrounded by several local businesses, including a second hand shoe trader, whose owner used an Equity Bank micro loan to expand his business. OPIC is providing $8.45 million in Meeting the global unemployment challengeJanuary 31, 2013A report earlier this month from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) offered some staggering measures of worldwide unemployment. IFC said there are currently 200 million people unemployed around the world – a number roughly equivalent to the population of Brazil — and that the developing world will need to create some 600 million new jobs by the year 2020, just 
OPIC’s profit per employee totals $1.2 million in 2012December 14, 2012Earlier this week, OPIC reported strong financial results for Fiscal Year 2012, including net income of $272 million, and a 30 percent increase in financial commitments to American businesses investing in emerging markets abroad. The fact that these results were achieved with a full-time staff of just 220 underscores the efficiency of OPIC’s operation. The agency’s profit-per-employee in 2012 worked 
OPIC, Ex-Im Bank and USTDA Partner to increase clean energy investment in AfricaNovember 30, 2012OPIC is partnering with two other U.S. government agencies to help promote U.S. private sector investment in clean energy projects in Africa through the Africa Clean Energy Development and Finance Center (CEDFC). Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank this week launched the CEDFC, an interagency partnership of OPIC, the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) Supporting the development of the next generation of African leadersNovember 14, 2012Africa’s labor force will be larger than China’s by 2035, according to statistics recently released by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. By the end of the century, 41 percent of the world’s youth live in African. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which invests in governance and leadership to catalyze Africa’s transformation, has also released some other, less optimistic numbers about the continent, 
South Sudan: The world’s newest developing nationNovember 07, 2012Last month, OPIC announced it was open for business in one-year-old South Sudan, the newly formed African country that seceded from Sudan in July 2011. The young country boasts enormous natural resources including oil, rich farmland and abundant wildlife across huge uncharted savannahs. It also faces formidable development challenges. Chief among those needs is the lack of basic infrastructure. During 
Featured photo: Hotel construction in TanzaniaNovember 02, 2012Workers at the construction site of a new hotel on the Tanzanian coastline outside Dar es Salaam. A team from OPIC recently visited Tanzania to explore potential projects, including one in the tourism sector, which is a steadily growing component of the Tanzanian economy. OPIC’s interest in Tanzania reflects a larger focus on Sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to many 
Featured photo: Improving financial inclusion through microfinanceOctober 26, 2012OPIC President & CEO Elizabeth Littlefield, Equity Bank founder James Mwangi (far left) and other bank representatives visit a branch in Nairobi, Kenya, to learn more about improving financial inclusion through microfinance and mobile banking technologies. The OPIC-supported Helios Sub-Saharan Africa Fund invested in Equity Bank, which has operations throughout East Africa. 
Expanding access to banking and credit in Sub-Saharan AfricaOctober 23, 2012Financial inclusion – the access to basic financial services like savings accounts and credit – can be essential to individuals trying to lift themselves out of poverty. Financial inclusion provides an opportunity to invest in a business, a home or an education. Rates of financial inclusion are low throughout much of the developing world, but particularly low in Sub-Saharan Africa. 
Monthly news wrap-up: August 2012September 05, 2012Late last month, the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) reported that farmers in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are increasing the use of small-scale irrigation schemes as a result of drought that puts the security of food supplies at risk. The three-year study found that, rather than wait for rainfall, smallholder farmers, whose farms supply food for individual families, are |
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