OPEC Fund for international development offers $25m to finance SFD project

Yemen and the OPEC Fund for InternationalDevelopment (OFID) have signed an US$25-million agreement to finance the 4thstage of a project of the Social Development Fund.The project aims to enable the SDF to contribute effectively to promoting socialrecovery and economic growth through the support of infrastructure, education andprofessional skills for youth and women, especially in the country’s rural areas.It also aims at alleviating poverty and achieving a sustainable development andtackling unemployment. The agreement was signed by Planning and InternationalCooperation Minister Mohammed al-Saadi and the OFID Director-General and ChiefExecutive Officer Suleiman Jasir Al-Herbish.Speaking to Saba, Al-Herbish said that the signing of the agreement was taken placewithin the framework of the OFID’s keenness to fulfill its commitments, which wereannounced at the donors' conference held in Riyadh, to support the developmentsector in Yemen."Since 1976, the total development aid to Yemen reached US$280 million, financing21 projects in various economic sectors", the OFID official said.He also added that the OFID offered US$28 million-soft loans to the private sector inYemen during the same period.