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The government of Japan granted aid from economic and social development programs, provision of rice amounting to 300 million Japanese yen, 2.7 million dollars of worth rice to the federal democratic republic of Ethiopia.
The food assistance is approximately 3300 tons of Japanese rice. The aid is provided through the food assistance program to combat food insecurity due to various factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project’s objectives are to meet the challenges of food and nutrition security in the country by increasing the availability of cereals in the market, meet the heightened need for rice, and cope with shortages. It aimed to help countries concentrate their resource on fighting the pandemic and safeguarding the lives and livelihood of millions of the most vulnerable people.
The agreement was signed by Yasmin Wohabrebbi, state Minister of MoF, and Ms. Ito Takako, Ambassador and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Ethiopia in addition to a deferral agreement as part of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) endorsed by the G20 members. so far Ethiopia has benefited over 221 million dollar debt payment suspension from its bilateral creditors to support the Ethiopian government.
The government of Japan has been extending its official development assistance (ODA) to Ethiopia through different modalities and most recently Yen loan schemes.
Ambassador Ito stated, “Japan has supported rice production in Ethiopia as one of the main pillars of our assistance agricultural sector since 2015.”
“Following up the grant Japan will continue to work with Ethiopia for more quality of production of rice” she added
“I hope that through this program this delicious Japanese rice will be distributed in E Ethiopia as soon as possible, by given to the public at an affordable price.”
In addition, Japan has also implemented nutritious food assistance through the World Food Program (WFP) since March.
‘’ We are not disclosing the distribution areas yet, and in the future, we hope to work with the government of Japan in areas of research and development programs” mentioned the state minister Yasmin Wohabrebbi.
