TIRANA (Albania), September 25 (SeeNews) – Germany will offer 5.0 million euro ($5.9 million) through its development bank KfW to increase the capital of Albania’s Rural Credit Guarantee Fund (RCGF) in order to improve financing of projects of local farmers, the German embassy in Tirana said.
“RCGF is an important and sustainable mechanism to improve living conditions, especially in rural areas, as well as to facilitate private investment,” German ambassador to Tirana Susanne Schutz said in a Facebook post late on Monday, following the signing of the grant agreement with Albania’s minister of agriculture Niko Peleshi.
“This fund is one of the elements of broad political and economic support that Germany gives to Albania on its path to the European Union,” Schutz added.
The fund has already supported around 1200 farmers to secure loans and finance their projects over the past three years.
RCGF was established in 2015 with the aim to facilitate access to funding for farmers and entrepreneurs in rural areas with little or no collateral. The fund supports its partner financial institutions through a risk-sharing mechanism.
Low expenditures and structural problems such as the small size of local farms and crop fields are some of the main challenges Albania faces in the area of agriculture, the European Commission after a meeting of EU - Albania Stabilisation and Association Agreement subcommittee on agriculture and fisheries in November 2017.
($ = 0.85053 euro)