Ethio Lease has signed a collaborative Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) to lease agriculture equipment to ATA sponsored farmers’ mechanisation centres. Ethio Lease is the first foreign-owned leasing company in Ethiopia.
Signing the MoU at the Ministry of Agriculture were Sani Redi, State Minister of Agriculture, Chimbo Anchala (PhD), Senior Director of ATA, along with Girma Wake, Board Chairperson of Ethio Lease.
“A smallholder farmer cannot afford to buy agro-mechanization equipment by himself. Lease financing brings solutions through agro-mechanised service providers,” State Minister Sani said, applauding the positive impact the lease will have in Ethiopia's agriculture sector.
Pointing out this is the first time a leasing company stepped up to provide such sort of service, the company's board chairperson Mr Girma said, "Leasing equipment to the mechanisation centres has the potential to positively impact the agriculture sector, increase productivity among farmers and ensure significant financial gains for Ethiopia.”
“Initially, we will be working with most of the 10 mechanisation centres for the pilot phase, " Ethio Lease CEO, Girum Tsegaye said. "The collaborative agreement has the potential to reach over 60 centres in the next two to three years, with Ethio Lease providing over 150 million dollars’ worth of agriculture equipment to ultimately support smallholder farmers, with support from the Ministry of Agriculture and ATA.”
Since its launch in August 2019, Ethio Lease has provided leasing services to address equipment shortages in the agriculture, healthcare, energy and food processing sectors, including some in manufacturing, it has been indicated. Ethio lease has so far signed leasing agreements with more than 46 lessees, and this week delivered 9 tractors to various farmers, in the country.
Ethio Lease is part of the AAFC group of companies, the company's website declares. AAFC is a privately owned US corporation, with its main office in New York. Ethio Lease is also the first foreign-owned company with a license to operate in a corner of the Ethiopian Financial Services sector.
Source: FBC
