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About Us
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
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Map of Provinces Under the
ARIES Program Coverage
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ARIES Implementing Partners:
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