EUR 200 million loan channelled to small Tunisian businesses through five local banks
FEMIP (the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership), the European Investment Bank’s dedicated facility for the nine partner countries on the southern flank of the Mediterranean, is pressing ahead with its support for small and medium-sized enterprises in Tunisia. This morning in Tunis it granted a EUR 200 million loan to five banks: Amen Bank, Arab Tunisian Bank, Banque de l’Habitat, Banque Internationale Arabe de Tunisie and Union Bancaire pour le Commerce et l’Industrie. These will pass on FEMIP’s favourable terms to their borrowers in long-term loans for capital projects in industry and the services sector, especially tourism, health and education. The SME customers will receive a 15 bp interest subsidy.
This is FEMIP’s sixth loan of this kind in Tunisia since 1998, bringing its total commitment to Tunisian SMEs to EUR 700 million. These credit lines have helped to finance over 1 200 projects, 90% of which undertaken by SMEs, which have created more than 12 000 jobs.
FEMIP’s main goal is to encourage the development of the private sector in the Mediterranean partner countries. In Tunisia, it seeks to help small businesses adapt to an increasingly liberalised and competitive environment and the progressive establishment of the free trade area with the European Union decided in Barcelona in 1995.