Rabat – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that it is set to channel €100 million in credit lines to six partner financial institutions (PFIs) for lending to youth-led micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) over a five-year period.
According to a statement from EBRD, the PFIs will also benefit from results-based compensation of up to 2%. The initiative is part of the European Bank’s Youth in Business Program.
The EBRD maintains that the program is poised to help close the gap in financing that is disproportionately affecting youth-led businesses. “There is a strong untapped market potential,” the statement explained.
“While 79 percent of young entrepreneurs mention financing as the key obstacle to growing their business, only 22% have used a loan, and 52% plan to use a loan in the future,” the bank found in an assessment of the Moroccan market.
The statement further adds that MSMEs that are privately owned or managed by entrepreneurs under the age of 35 are all eligible to receive “tailored capacity-building and business consulting services, including one-to-one advisory projects, training in entrepreneurship, e-learning, and network-building activities.”
During the launch event, EBRD signed a €20 million loan to Credit Immobilier et Hotelier (CIH Bank). The loan was the first EBRD issued as part of the Youth in Business program in Morocco, for on-lending to MSMEs owned or managed by young entrepreneurs.
In addition, the bank says that CIH Bank is set to benefit from a technical assistance package and incentives to develop a strategy dedicated to better serving youth-led firms.
The package will also include a “capacity-building component for youth-led MSMEs that will enable the delivery of one-to-one advisory projects, training in entrepreneurship, and digital mentoring.”
Attending the launch event were Bank Al-Maghrib General Director Abderrahim Bouazza, EBRD Head of Morocco Office Antoine Salle de Chou, EBRD Gender and Economic Inclusion Director Barbara Rambousek, and Richard Jones EBRD Director for SME Finance and Development for the southern and eastern Mediterranean region.
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