Ethiopia: World Bank Finances Women in the Missing Middles

Businesswomen in an economic class informally referred to as the missing middles, have benfited from almost 50 million dollars in the last two years. The loans, disbursed by the Development Bank of Ethiopia (DBE), were issued at a default rate of zero for the Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme (WEDP).

WEDP is a World Bank-funded project aimed at increasing earnings of female-run micro-enterprises in urban areas. Twelve microfinance institutions (MFI) started operations just over two years ago and received loans initially projected for a five-year period. Technical assistance was provided by Enterprise Partners, which assisted the Bank in assessing their financial positions and performance, ensuring that they met the criteria for receiving loans.

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