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The OPIC Blog
Featured photo: Support for Rwandan coffee growersFebruary 15, 2013Shyara washing station owned by OPIC client Westrock Coffee Holdings’ Rwanda Trading Co. (“RTC”). OPIC political risk insurance is supporting RTC’s coffee processing operations in Rwanda, which provides agricultural extension loans, seed, fertilizer, compost and technical assistance to help small local coffee producers across the country improve production processes and access international markets. RTC is also providing technical assistance to help 
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 OPIC and GE partner to bring clean cookstoves to East AfricaFebruary 05, 2013Last Thursday, outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced a new OPIC partnership with GE to finance a clean cookstoves project in East Africa – one of a select series of public-private partnerships producing sustainable solutions to key global challenges that she chose to highlight during her final week in office. Developmentally, the project addresses one of the world’s most 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 monitoring trip to Kenya: A revolution realizedJanuary 16, 2013An interdepartmental OPIC team traveled to Kenya last year to monitor the performance of three financial institutions whose microfinance lending is supported by the agency: Musoni, the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust DTM Ltd (KWFT), and Equity Bank. Over the course of three days, members of OPIC’s Office of Investment Policy, Portfolio Management Department, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Finance Department, and 
Featured photo: Savannah Fruits Company in GhanaDecember 07, 2012OPIC provides financing to the nonprofit social investment fund Root Capital, which supports lending to Savannah Fruits and other small rural businesses in Africa and Central and South America. Ghana has a long tradition of manually harvesting and processing shea nuts into butter. Savannah Fruits Co was founded in 2006 with the goal of connecting more local shea butter producers Secretary Hillary Clinton awards OPIC client Sorwathe with Award for Corporate ExcellenceNovember 28, 2012Today, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented the U.S. Department of State 2012 small-medium sized business Award for Corporate Excellence to OPIC client Sorwathe, a Rwandan tea processing factory. The award honors U.S. business practices, corporate social responsibility and innovation in a company’s overseas operations. The company was chosen from 82 nominees and 11 finalists as the recipient of the 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 
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. |
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