Academy for Educational Development

When the ARIES Program was launched in 2006, there had already been much progress in the Afghan financial sector. Thirteen banks were licensed; a leasing and financing company was operating; and thirteen microfinance institutions (MFIs) were providing services to almost 200,000 active clients in 20 provinces. Despite these successes, the overwhelming majority of Afghans and particularly those in rural areas still lacked access to formal financial services. This ongoing challenge represents as a major constraint to poverty reduction efforts in Afghanistan, the success of which depend in large part on the ability of households and businesses to access reliable, appropriate financial services from credit to savings to money transfers and beyond. To address this significant gap in services, AED is managing the largest rural finance program ever awarded by USAID. ARIES is a three-year, $100 million program designed to support the USAID’s strategic objective of promoting a thriving licit economy led by the private sector through the development of financial institutions and financial services.















The ARIES Program was launched in 2006 and aims to provide expanded access to financial services in the rural regions of Afghanistan, and to create a strong private sector foundation for a sustainable finance system capable of providing a range of financial services to rural areas. ARIES target areas are the provinces in the East, North and South; and, Herat province in the West.













Through the ARIES program, AED is creating jobs and access to financial security for rural households and enterprises throughout Afghanistan. To achieve this, ARIES is establishing a regional network of sustainable local financial institutions including cooperatives and village banks; providing technical assistance to the Microfinance Investment Support Facility of Afghanistan (MISFA); developing guarantee mechanisms to increase wholesale lending to microfinance institutions and small and medium enterprises; and, supporting an investment vehicle to provide growing enterprises with access to larger-scale debt investment. Implemented under the AED FIELD Support Program in collaboration with FINCA International, the World Council of Credit Unions, ShoreBank International, ACDI/VOCA and MISFA, ARIES has already established a total outstanding loan portfolio of $22 million and reached 75,000 active borrowers across 20 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.