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EBRD promotes microfinance in Kosovo
€3 million loan is Bank’s first to a local NGO
The EBRD is providing its first loan to a non-governmental organization (NGO)
in Kosovo to help local entrepreneurs gain more access to finance to build new
or expand existing businesses.
The €3 million loan will enable the Kosovo Enterprise Programme (KEP) to
onlend finance to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The loan
falls under the recently established €75 Million EBRD Micro, Small and Medium
Sized Enterprises Finance Framework for the Western Balkans and Croatia, which
aims at facilitating access to finance for smaller business clients.
Kenji Nakazawa, Head of the EBRD office in FYR Macedonia and Kosovo, said the
Bank’s loan to a local NGO is an important vehicle that will help finance even
more entrepreneurs in Kosovo. Recently the EBRD provided a €3 million loan to
the New Bank of Kosovo to support micro businesses. The Bank’s loan is helping
to fuel competition among the many institutions supporting local micro and
small businesses, which will ultimately benefit the entrepreneurs, said Mr
Nakazawa.
Established in 1999 by the International Catholic Migration Commission, a
Geneva-based NGO, to provide financing and consultancy to entrepreneurs in
Kosovo, KEP is a leading microfinance institution with Kosovo-wide branch
coverage and employing nearly 100 staff.
Muriithi Kagai, KEP Executive Director, said the EBRD and KEP partnership will
develop further in the future as KEP's expansion strategy progresses. This
investment highlights the confidence a respected institution like the EBRD has
in KEP, and should encourage other institutions that are keen to form a
partnership with KEP in the future.
The EBRD was one of the first International Financial Institutions to begin
operating in Kosovo following the conflict in 1999 and set up a local office
in Prishtina in 2001 to promote investments and economic growth. To date the
Bank has supported six projects in the financial sector.
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