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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 returns to Davos for the World Economic Forum’s annual meetingJanuary 22, 2013OPIC 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 
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 Why small businesses in the Pacific Northwest should expand and invest abroadOctober 02, 2012By 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 
Featured photo: Guaranties for small business lending in ParaguaySeptember 13, 2012Paraguayan entrepreneur Mercedes Cabrera de Idiarte started a clothing manufacturing business with five sewing machines, and today has 25 machines, 36 employees and sells apparel across Paraguay, generating annual revenue of 200 million guarani (about USD $45,000). Cabrera began working with the local Banco Familiar 19 years ago and her credit line with has risen to 15 million guarani. She used 
Sharing OPIC’s story: A conversation with Judith Pryor, Vice President of Office of External AffairsJuly 31, 2012In your experience, what is it that people find most interesting about OPIC’s work and what do they find most surprising? It varies by audience, of course, but in general OPIC’s project success stories are what people are most interested in. People like to hear how two college friends who traveled through Brazil came up with the idea to introduce 
“The most promising frontier market in the world today”July 27, 2012OPIC 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, “The itty-bitty multinational”June 05, 2012Many large U.S. corporations earn more than half their revenue in overseas markets, but as OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield writes in The Atlantic, small businesses can also benefit from thinking globally. Littlefield notes that emerging markets have grown from 23 percent of the world economy in 1999 to nearly 40 percent in 2011, and will be the majority of |
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