June 12 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a 5 million euro ($5.6 million) loan to UniCredit Bank Serbia for on-lending to women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the two banks have said.
The loan is extended under the Women in Business Programme (WiB), aimed to increase access to finance and provide business advice for female entrepreneurs, the EBRD and UniCredit Bank Serbia said in a joint press release on Friday.
Loans can be used for financing working capital and investments with annual interest rate starting from 2.7% and in the amount of maximum 500,000 euro in dinar counter value, the two banks said.
Working capital loans have a maximum repayment period of 36 months, while investments loans are approved with the repayment period up to 60 months and have a grace period up to 12 months.
"EBRD experience has shown that women-led businesses are successful competitors in the market, benefiting the whole economy. However, a targeted lending and technical assistance programme helps stimulate the companies to access finance. The results have been clear – investment, jobs, trade and economic growth," EBRD director for Serbia, Daniel Berg, said in the statement.
UniCredit Bank Serbia has been recognised by EBRD as a strong and reliable partner for conducting such an important project as empowering women entrepreneurs, Csilla Ihasz, president of the management board of UniCredit Bank Serbia, said.
In total, the EBRD has provided 24.5 million euro in the Western Balkans in Women in Business loans to partner financial institutions for lending to female entrepreneurs in five countries.
($ = 0.891405 euro)
UniCredit Bank Srbija AD is among the biggest banks in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here