Accra, Nov. 3, GNA - The U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Citigroup Financial Services Company are to provide 30 million dollars in financing to expand micro finance lending in 19 countries in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Western Hemisphere. The financing would be made through Pro-credit Holding AG, an international financing institution, according to an October 31 OPIC press release made available to the Ghana News Agency.

The amount would enable small businesses in Ghana, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique to obtain long-term credit. "Commercial banks in developing countries typically neglect small businesses, which ironically, are often the main engines of growth in those same countries as well as a stabilizing element in society," said OPIC President Robert Mosbacher Jr.

OPIC's political risk insurance and financing help US businesses of all sizes invest in more than 150 emerging markets and developing nations worldwide.