NUR-SULTAN
Kazakhstan’s leading lender, Bank CenterCredit (BCC), will receive $60 million in loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to support small and medium sized businesses, women entrepreneurs and green initiatives.
The lender will receive a loan of up to US$20 million under the EBRD’s Green Economy Financing Facility (GEFF), designed to support domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) ready to invest in climate mitigation and adaptation technologies and services. The financing will be supported by grant funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Austria.
A further $30 million will be earmarked for lending to micro, small and medium-sized businesses across Kazakhstan. Borrowers under the loan will benefit from grant resources provided under the EU Investment Facility for Central Asia.
The final $10 million will be used help promote women’s entrepreneurship and business activity in the Central Asian country by assisting women with access to finance, know-how and technical advice. The initiative also provides technical support to financial institutions to offer more services to women-led businesses. It is supported by funds provided by Kazakhstan’s Economy Ministry.
Bank CentreCredit is one of the leading commercial banks in Kazakhstan in terms of assets and deposits. Its main customer base is small and medium sized businesses. The EBRD loan follows the introduction of a number of tax breaks by the government to help SMEs weather the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, which were hit hard by restrictions imposed to stop the spread fo the virus.
GEFF is part of the EBRD’s commitment to scale up its climate and environmental finance under the Green Economy Transition (GET) approach with the aim to become a majority green bank by 2025. The GEFF programme operates through a network of over 150 local financial institutions across 27 countries, supported by around five billion euro of EBRD finance.
The EBRD has invested more than $7.95 billion in Kazakhstan’s economy through 280 projects.