TIRANA (Albania), November 16 (SeeNews) – Albania's parliament said it has approved a 5 million euro ($5.7 million) grant agreement with Germany intended for increasing the capital of country’s Rural Credit Guarantee Fund (RCGF) in order to improve the financing of projects of Albanian farmers.
The agreement supports small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is rural areas, the parliament said in a press release late on Thursday.
RCGF is an important and sustainable mechanism to improve living conditions, especially in rural areas, as well as to facilitate private investment, according to the statement.
The agreement was signed in September by German ambassador to Albania Susanne Schutz and agriculture minister Niko Peleshi.
“This fund is one of the elements of broad political and economic support that Germany gives to Albania on its path to the European Union,” Schutz said at the time.
The fund has already supported around 1200 farmers to secure loans and finance their projects over the past three years.
RCGF was established in 2015 with the aim to facilitate access to funding for farmers and entrepreneurs in rural areas with little or no collateral. The fund supports its partner financial institutions through a risk-sharing mechanism.
Low expenditures and structural problems such as the small size of local farms and crop fields are some of the main challenges Albania faces in the area of agriculture, the European Commission after a meeting of EU - Albania Stabilisation and Association Agreement subcommittee on agriculture and fisheries last year.
($ = 0.88317 euro)