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Agriculture Rural Investment &
Enterprise Strengthening
ARIES is
a three year $100 million program of USAID designed to support the USAID
strategic objective of promoting a thriving licit economy led by the private
sector through the development of financial institutions.
The
ARIES program aims to provide expanded access to financial services in
the rural regions of Afghanistan, and to create a strong private sector
foundation for a sustainable finance system capable of providing a range
of financial services to rural areas. The target of the program is all
regions of the country.
ARIES
will assist existing institutions to reach new levels of outreach and
efficiency. Where institutions do not exist in priority areas, we will
create them or assist others to expand to new markets.
The Academy
for Educational Development (AED) is
managing the ARIES program on behalf of USAID and is carrying out the objectives
along with five experienced implementing partners. This program design
enables ARIES to offer financial services to a range of enterprises from
micro to primarily agro-based small, medium and even larger businesses
with a capacity to create significant number of jobs. Loan sizes can
range from less than $500 to more than $500,000.
ARIES funds are utilized to:
Ø Establish community development Investment
and Finance Cooperatives (IFC)
Ø Establish the Afghanistan Rural Finance
Center (ARFC)
Ø Open new microfinance branches
Ø Strengthen the capacity of the commercial
banks to provide Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) lending services
Ø Provide
micro and SME loans to individuals, rural cooperatives and enterprises
through a wide variety of lending mechanisms
The table below
shows range of loans provided:
|
Level
|
Segment
|
Loan Size
|
Likely Partners
|
|
1
|
Household
production, livelihood enterprises and small farms
|
Up
to $1,000
|
Microfinance
Institution (MFI) and Investment and Finance Cooperatives (IFC)
|
|
2
|
Micro
enterprises, including small-scale commercial farms
|
$1,001
to $7,000
|
MFIs
and IFCs and Microfinance banks
|
|
3
|
small
enterprises
|
$7,001
to $50,000
|
Finance
and/or leasing companies, microfinance banks and commercial banks
|
|
4
|
Medium
enterprises covering a wide range of agriculture and related industries
|
>$50,000
|
ARFC
and commercial banks
|
Map of Provinces Under the ARIES Program Coverage
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ARIES
Implementing Partners:
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