July 23 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a 8 million euro ($9.3 million) to the Serbian unit of Banca Intesa for on-lending to local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) led by women, it said.
The new loan will help Banca Intesa Beograd meet the growing demand by clients following the coronavirus crisis and will further support access to finance for female entrepreneurs, the EBRD said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Today we are again joining forces with our longstanding partner Banca Intesa Beograd to support women-led businesses in Serbia. This is an important step forward in our effort to support women’s economic inclusion in the country," Zsuzsanna Hargitai, EBRD Regional Director, Western Balkans and Head of Serbia, said.
This is the fourth time the EBRD provides finance to the Serbian unit of Banca Intesa under its flagship Women in Business programme. The initiative is supported by donor funds from Sweden and Luxembourg.
"As the first bank that started the implementation of the EBRD Women in Business programme in Serbia, we have supported over 1,500 female-led initiatives so far, helping female entrepreneurs advance their business and realise their development ambitions," the President of the Executive Board of Banca Intesa's Serbian unit, Draginja Djuric, said.
The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Serbia. The bank has invested more than 6.0 billion euro across 267 projects in the country to date. The EBRD is focusing on support for private-sector development, improvement of public utility services and on the overall transition towards a green economy.
($ = 0.862932 euro)
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