PRISTINA (Kosovo), January 17 (SeeNews) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Thursday it is providing a 20 million euro ($22.8 million) loan to ProCredit Bank Kosovo for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The loan is provided under the Kosovo SME Competitiveness Support Programme that aims to help small firms move towards EU standards, the bank said in a statement.
The loan is part of an EBRD-EU financing package extended to ProCredit Bank Kosovo.
The package combines the EBRD loan with EU investment grants provided by the EU under its Instrument I for Pre-accession Assistance as well as the Western Balkans Enterprise Development and Innovation Facility and the EBRD Shareholders’ Special Fund, the bank elaborated.
“We are confident that the combination of commercial loans with blended finance will improve small businesses’ access to much needed finance. This will provide an impulse to further improve their performance,” EBRD regional director for the Western Balkans, Zsuzsanna Hargitai, said.
ProCredit Bank is a key provider of SME finance in Kosovo and is seeing a growing demand for its lending services, EBRD said.
The EBRD-run Western Balkans SME Competitiveness Support Programme, under which the funding to ProCredit Bank Kosovo is being provided, aims to improve the access to finance of small businesses and their competitiveness.
($ =0.87702 euro)