The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is supporting the availability of financing and non-banking services to private businesses in the Kyrgyz Republic with a $3m equivalent loan to Mol Bulak Finance for on-lending to micro and small enterprises (MSEs).
The loan will be extended in Kyrgyz Som, in line with the EBRD’s focus on increasing local currency lending in its countries of operations.
EBRD said its three-year senior loan will be used to address the limited access to finance for entrepreneurs in Kyrgyzstan, especially in the country’s remote areas.
It will help Mol Bulak Finance, a non-bank microfinance institution serving around 30,000 customers, in expanding its lending portfolio and will increase the availability of local currency finance to MSEs.
Kenji Nakazawa, head of the EBRD Resident Office in Bishkek said with the EBRD’s support Mol Bulak will become a stronger regional player with better outreach to micro entrepreneurs in remote areas of the Kyrgyz Republic.
In the Kyrgyz Republic, the EBRD focuses its activities on supporting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and developing key infrastructure projects. To date, the EBRD has committed about EUR250m in various sectors of the Kyrgyz economy, mobilizing additional investments of about EUR500m in over 70 projects.