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The OPIC Blog
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 
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. 
Featured photo: Expanding Horizons conference in ChicagoOctober 19, 2012At 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 
On World Food Day, some facts about food and developmentOctober 16, 2012Tuesday, October 16 is World Food Day, which marks the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 67 years ago, and calls attention each year to the persistent problem of world hunger. While FAO says that progress has been made and that there are 130 million fewer hungry people today than there were 20 years Monthly news wrap-up: September 2012October 03, 2012Last month, the General Assembly of the United Nations convened to begin the General Debate of the 67th Session and leaders from 193 countries congregated in New York City to discuss some of the world’s toughest issues. As reported by the State Department, some of the United States’ priorities include building on the progress made toward achieving the Millennium Development 
September Board Meeting: Priorities renewed and newerSeptember 26, 2012At 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 
Featured photo: World Water WeekAugust 31, 2012It 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 
International Youth Day 2012August 09, 2012Sunday, August 12 is International Youth Day, an annual observance supported by the United Nations (UN) calling attention to youth issues worldwide. In both developing and developed countries, young people face pressing global challenges, such as high levels of unemployment and subpar working conditions. They are seemingly left out while their leaders make decisions on their future. The UN provides 
Featured photo: International community school expansion in Kumasi, GhanaJuly 20, 2012A student at the International Community School (ICS) in Kumasi, Ghana. An OPIC loan has helped fund the expansion of this K-12 school, which offers rigorous curriculum that prepares students for college and careers. Unlike other International Schools in Ghana that serve a largely expatriate population, ICS focuses on educating local Ghanaians, who comprise 91% of the student body and Extending the reach of microfinanceJune 11, 2012OPIC’s 2011 annual report takes a look back at the agency’s first 40 years and highlights some lending programs from the 1970s that delivered loans – sometimes in amounts less than $1,000 – to individuals and small businesses in developing countries. Decades before microfinance became widely recognized as an effective tool for supplying small loans to individuals and small businesses, OPIC was |
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