On Thursday, Moldova's largest financial institution - the maib bank signed a $30.8 million loan agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the largest investment subdivision of the World Bank Group, for funding small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Moldova as well as businesses run by women. The document was signed by maib Board Chairman Giorgi Shagidze and the IFC Regional Director for Europe Ms. Rana Karadshex.

The size of the loan's first tranche will be 20 million euros.

Giorgi Shagidze called the signing of the Agreement "an important event" for the Bank he manages.

"This is the first such instrument for lending to small and medium-sized businesses in Moldova. This is an important start of IFC cooperation with maib and, I hope, with Moldova," said the banker, stressing that in 2022 the share of maib in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises in the republic reached 50%.

IFC Europe Director Rana Karadsheh, who is visiting Moldova for the first time, said that the Corporation expressed its desire to support the republic, whose economy has been severely affected by Russia's aggression against Ukraine.

"Its GDP decreased by 5.9% last year, while the annual inflation rate reached 30%," she said, adding that it is very important to support small and medium-sized businesses in order to restore the Moldovan economy.

Rana Karadsheh stressed that 60% jobs in Moldova are provided by small and medium-sized enterprises.

According to the terms of the Loan Agreement, a half of the funds are earmarked for lending to the SMEs sector, and the second part to support businesses run by businesswomen.

INFOTAG's dossier: The share of maib in SMEs financing in 2022 increased to 31.4%. The bank has almost 30 thousand active clients from this sector. The loan portfolio for SMEs reached 5.5 billion lei, having increased by 46.7% compared to 2021.