EU4Business: investment loan of 28 million EUR through EIB guarantee fund for Moldovan local entrepreneurs

123 Small and Medium-ized Enterprises from the Republic of Moldova have received 28 million EUR in loans, benefiting from 70% guarantees provided by the European Union through the European Investment Bank Group.

Because of this guarantee facility, SMEs have been able to receive funding more easily. As a result, companies have been able to invest in machinery, construction and raw materials, benefiting from preferential interest rates, extended repayment periods and significantly reduced standard pledge requirements.

Damiagro SRL is a company that has been producing wheat, corn and sunflowers for more than 16 years. Throughout this time, the need to invest in machinery has been essential to increase production capacity.

“Along the way, we understood that we need to attract external sources of financing in order to continuously develop and we have received some loans for the purchase agricultural machinery and equipment, which helps us to work with a modern soil processing technology, i.e. to obtain a quality product, to be more competitive on the market,” said Mihaela Belitei, Accountant at Damiagro SRL.

With the support of the European Union, through the European Investment Bank Group, the family business has been able to benefit from improved conditions when accessing loans, with less collateral being required.

The EIB Group signed its first guarantee agreements with ProCredit Holding and its banks in 2017 to support loans worth 100 million EUR to SMEs in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. These guarantees were financed by the European Union through the Neighbourhood Investment Facility under the EU4Business initiative.