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Featured photo: Supporting small businesses in Africa

February 08, 2013

In 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
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Meeting the global unemployment challenge

January 31, 2013

A 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
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Featured photo: OPIC President Elizabeth Littlefield speaks at the World Economic Forum

January 25, 2013

This image from a screen recapping events at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland captures a quote from OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield. She is speaking on a panel about Scaling Social Innovation, and is participating in multiple events at the Forum exploring ways to address transformative social and environmental change.

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OPIC returns to Davos for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting

January 22, 2013

OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield joins a large group of business and political leaders from around the world gathering in Davos, Switzerland this week for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF). For more than 40 years, the event has focused high-level discussions around some of the biggest challenges facing the planet, and sought to identify solutions
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OPIC’s profit per employee totals $1.2 million in 2012

December 14, 2012

Earlier 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
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Secretary Hillary Clinton awards OPIC client Sorwathe with Award for Corporate Excellence

November 28, 2012

Today, 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
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Featured photo: Expanding Horizons conference in Chicago

October 19, 2012

At the latest Expanding Horizons conference in Chicago, GWA Innovative Technologies’ Thomas Anokye (center) and John Martinson (right) meet with Alison Germak-Gatchev, OPIC’s director of business development, to discuss a proposal to redevelop a marketplace in Accra, Ghana. The Expanding Horizons conference, which drew 118 small business owners from 14 states, educated small U.S. businesses about the ways OPIC products
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Featured photo: Students singing at Nairobi’s Ongata Pine Breeze Academy

October 12, 2012

Lillian Alwi, right, leads students in song at the Ongata Pine Breeze Academy outside Nairobi, Kenya. As school director, Alwi has used two loans from the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust (KWFT) to build Pine Breeze into a bustling source of hope for more than 500 children from a poor community in the Ngong Hills  – “my passion,” she says. OPIC
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Why small businesses in the Pacific Northwest should expand and invest abroad

October 02, 2012

By Elizabeth Littlefield Wade Rain is a small family-owned business in Tualtin, Oregon that distributes irrigation equipment – most of which is made in the United States. About ten years ago, the company saw an opportunity to expand into Mexico, where heavy farming and light rainfall have combined to deplete the water table. Wade Rain knew that the irrigation equipment
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OPIC to host Expanding Horizons workshop for small businesses, October 3 in Seattle

September 25, 2012

As more U.S. small businesses participate in the global marketplace, they are facing new questions and challenges. Expanding Horizons, a workshop for small businesses entering international markets, helps entrepreneurs explore new opportunities that can help strengthen their business at home and abroad. Join OPIC at Expanding Horizons in Seattle on October 3, 2012 and learn about the government programs and financial
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