A new US$39.2 million IFAD-supported project will help boost the rural economy and reduce poverty in the Republic of Moldova. The Rural Financial Services and Agribusiness Development Project is designed to support the Moldova's ongoing efforts to upgrade its agribusiness sector to meet demand from both domestic and export markets. It will also enhance the profitability of rural businesses and give rural people, including young people, decent employment opportunities.
IFAD will provide a loan of US$19.3 million and a grant of US$0.5 million to finance the project under an agreement, signed today, by Kanayo Nwanze, President of IFAD, and Vasile Bumacov, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry of the Republic of Moldova.
"The project will support contract farming arrangements while promoting access to a full range of rural financial services, particularly adapted to the needs of developing small and micro enterprises and other income generating activities," said Abdelkarim Sma, IFAD's Country Programme Manager for Moldova. "This will help achieve a sustainable improvement in the incomes of some of the most vulnerable and poorest groups in rural areas", he added.
The project, which is co-financed by a grant of approximately US$4.6 million from the Danish Agency for Development, targets around 37,000 poor rural people. It will provide them with access to rural financial services and to benefits from small-scale infrastructure development.
With this project, IFAD will have financed five projects in Moldova for a total commitment of US$69 million.
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$12.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 370 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome - the UN's food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 167 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
