Rabat - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Friday that it granted a €100 million loan to the Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), one of Morocco’s largest banks.
Rabat – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Friday that it granted a €100 million loan to the Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), one of Morocco’s largest banks.
According to a statement from the EBRD, these funds will be used to grant credit to small and medium industrial enterprises, especially those operating in the Moroccan offshore zones and those that are export-oriented.
The funds will be made available for the BCP and its ten regional banks and the popular Chaabi International Bank Offshore to allow the Moroccan bank to increase loans granted to very small and medium enterprises (VSME).
These enterprises represent over 93 percent of companies active in the country, but receive only 25 percent of loans granted to the private sector by Moroccan banks.
This loan is the third granted by the EBRD to the BCP. In 2013, the two financial institutions signed an agreement for a financing facility of international exchange of $50 million.
In 2014, the European bank also granted a loan of €100 million to BCP in order to support VSMEs.
As part of its activities in Morocco, last month the EBRD granted a loan of €35 million to the Office National de l’Electricite et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) to support Morocco’s renewable energy sector.