Guidance

Ethiopian Competiveness Facility (ECF)

How to apply for the ECF, a grant available to companies working in the leather, textile, garment, and agro-processing industries.

Overview

The Ethiopian Competitiveness Facility (ECF) is a project operated by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) Ministry of Industry (MOI), and financed by the Department for International Development (DFID) Private Enterprise Programme Ethiopia (PEPE).

The Programme is sector focused with priority being given to private sector enterprises operating in the leather, textile and garment, and agro-processing industries. The support is to enhance their competitiveness in the global market and improve domestic sales.

The grant also benefits:

  • institutions that support export development, particularly by providing needed products and services to the targeted industries
  • local, regional and national chambers of commerce and sectoral associations to develop their capability to better serve the needs of their members
  • private enterprises that do not currently export but are operating in the above noted three priority sectors are eligible for the grant support

This grant also supports the metal, engineering, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, private firms supplying accessories and consumables to an exporting firm and enterprises planning to begin exporting in the future or who plan to substitute imported goods with locally manufactured equivalents.

Who’s Eligible?

To be eligible to apply for this fund you must be one of the following:

  • a private firm which works in the priority sector or supports those firms who are exporting goods within the priority sector
  • a private firm employing under 250 persons, which is either currently involved in production for export, or plans to move into production for export, and that is operating in the leather, textiles and garment or agro-processing industries
  • a private enterprise that does not currently export but is engaged in supporting the development of the targeted sectors
  • an institution that enhance the export development capacities of private firms that are exporting or preparing to export so as to better to enable them to expand their exports
  • a local or regional chamber of commerce, a sectoral associations or a professional association

The application process

  • any firm, institution or association expressing and interest will need to fill out a short questionnaire (available from the contacts below) that will confirm whether or not it is eligible to apply for the funding
  • the questionnaire will be evaluated by ECF (with a site visit if necessary), and an acceptance letter will be issued to the applicant if the proposed project acceptable
  • once the applicant has received the acceptance letter they will need to prepare an export/domestic sales development (or applicable) business plan with hands-on support from ECF experts
  • the business development plan will be evaluated by the ECF team
  • after reviewing the business development plan, the ECF team will prepare a project appraisal document and present it to Public Private Steering Committee (PPSC) for approval
  • once approved, a Letter of Grant Agreement will be signed between the client and PPSC Chairperson, the State Minister of Industry, for the effective execution of the project
  • finally, implementation of the project will start and follow-up evaluations will subsequently be made, at least every 2 months, until project completion

Contact information

For further information and to request an application pack please contact:

Milkias Teklegiorgis (Project Coordinating Office)
Tel 2515504777

E-mail: miltgt@gmail.com

Aseged Asefa (Ethiopian Competitiveness Facility)
Tel: 2515571098

E-mail: aseged_asefa@yahoo.com

Published 25 July 2013