At a press conference held today in Skopje, FYR Macedonia, the European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), announced that, over the next five years, it is prepared to provide an additional €900m of financing to financial institutions in the region for on-lending. The money is specifically meant to finance long-term loans to small business, in particular to micro and small enterprises (MSEs), as well as housing improvement loans to low-income private households.
According to a press release, “the investments will enable commercial banks and those specialised on small business as well as microfinance institutions in Southeast Europe to address the financing demands of the local small business sector and the demand for better quality housing from low-income, private households.
“It will also help them to provide medium and longer-term business loans for investments and working capital purposes and to support home improvement, enlargement, (re-)construction and purchase, with maximum loan amounts of up to €100,000”.
Many of EFSE’s investments will also be supported by a technical assistance facility, the EFSE Development Facility, to provide its partner lending institutions with institution-building support especially in the areas of credit risk & delinquency management, risk management and internal control.
FinSMEs
26/05/2010