Announcement

Salt Production Company Helps Create Jobs with a New Loan

USAID provides a loan to help a local business expand.

Kabul, Afghanistan  | Saturday, November 15, 2008

Photo: USAID/Afghanistan

Workers producing salt at the Omid Kabul Company. The new loan will create new jobs and expand their services across thecountry.

With the promise of a $50,000 loan from the USAID-supported Afghanistan Rural Finance Company, the Omid Kabul Company plans to do much more than just sell salt. The locally owned salt production business will create over 100 new jobs, a better business infrastructure, and provide villages in seven provinces with iodized salt that will decrease dental disease and blindness in small children. Managers of the Omid Kabul Company plan to use the funds to purchase new salt packaging equipment, better transportation and storage, and expand operations from Kabul to Bamyan, Ghazni, Herat, Kunduz, Paktya, and Wardak provinces, all poor, underdeveloped and undernourished areas. In addition to creating employment opportunities and improving access to healthy products, USAID loans such as these encourage ambitious entrepreneurs to build legal businesses, resulting in a legitimate economy and stable business environment.