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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 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. 
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 It’s as simple as a stoveAugust 30, 2012How one appliance can saves lives, empower women, and reduce pollution in the developing world. By Mimi Alemayehou Nearly every mother’s daily routine includes making meals for her children no matter where on this planet she happens to live. In the U.S., we have a range of easy, efficient appliances to choose from when preparing a meal – stovetop, oven, 
OPIC helps kick off ILPA webcast seriesAugust 23, 2012Last week, during a live webcast entitled Emerging Market Private Equity – Part 1: “A Growth Story,” OPIC’s Chief Investment Strategist Jay Koh highlighted ways to be successful in emerging market private equity. Koh and International Finance Corporation Chief Investment Officer and Manager David Wilton hosted the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) sponsored webcast, which attracted nearly 100 active participants. 
Featured photo: Affordable, sustainable homes in LiberiaAugust 17, 2012Housing construction at the site of Broad Cove Ecohomes, Liberia outside of Monrovia. Broad Cove is using an OPIC loan to build moderately-priced houses in a region where affordable housing is virtually nonexistent. Broad Cove is using renewable and locally-sourced materials including bricks made from compressed earth and cement which will keep the houses naturally cool. 
Investing in better harvestsAugust 13, 2012Workers at the FAIM company in Rwanda begin planting new, virus-free banana plant seedlings. These seedling will help farmers boost their farm production, their incomes, and the local food supply. In Rwanda, deficient seed and plant stocks hinder food production and impair the health and nutrition of communities that depend on local food. For example, the use of diseased plants |
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