Welcome to the 68th edition of ፍራንክ Digest!

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Bridging The Finance Gap

Economy

We glossed over National Agri-Finance Implementation Roadmap (NAFIR) before but now we have the full-blown T on hand. For those unfamiliar, we got you covered.

It’s a collaboration between the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) to finally give farmers the VIP financial access they’ve deserved all along. The program is set to last five years from 2025 to 2030.

Despite agriculture being the heavy hitter accounting for 32% of GDP, 64% of all jobs, and 79% of export revenues, credit trickles more like a glucose IV drip to the sector. Banks only direct about 8% of their total lending to the sector and microfinance institutions (MFI) just 18%.

Demand for agricultural credit is estimated at a massive ETB 2.5 trillion per year (USD 15 billion), but in 2024 the total disbursed was just ETB 52 billion (or ETB 125 billion if you include fertilizer credit from CBE)—a measly 2% (or at best 5%) of demand…ጉድ ነው

NAFIR wants to avail ETB 881 billion/year (USD 6 billion) to the sector by 2030.

Why the yawning gap? Financial Institutions (FI) such as banks and MFIs struggle because: