EU grants Ethiopia €537m in development aid

The European Union has given Ethiopia a five-year €537 million grant to build roads, reduce poverty and become self-sufficient…

The European Union has given Ethiopia a five-year €537 million grant to build roads, reduce poverty and become self-sufficient in food production.

Of the total grant to Ethiopia, 55 per cent will be used to build roads and 25 per cent to implement poverty-reduction programmes.

The rest will be divided so that 15 per cent goes to help it achieve self-sufficiency in food production and 5 per cent to train civil servants.

The EU has given loans, grants and favourable terms of trade to poor countries for over 25 years under a trade and development pact negotiated in 1975 and renewed every five years.