The government has announced that businesses that took loans via the European Investment Bank (EIB) previously are not eligible for any stimulus loans from EIB this year.
To help with the losses businesses faced with COVID-19, Bank of Maldives (BML) facilitated EIB loans to Maldivian businesses in December of 2020. Under this scheme, small and medium businesses received around 375 million Rufiyaa in loans until March of this year.
The stimulus loans introduced this year by the government are also funded by EIB. However, in addition BML, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) will also be facilitating these loans this year.
Parties that had previously borrowed via an EIB loan from December 2020 to March 2021 are not eligible to apply for this stimulus loan.
Economic Minister Fayyaz Ismail told Mihaaru news that this condition was applied to ensure more people get EIB loans.
The government had introduced other economy recovery schemes as well last year, in addition to the EIB loans. If a business had borrowed under another scheme, they are eligible to apply for the EIB loan. However, the loan will only be issued to parties that are capable to repay both loans.
Each businesses can apply for as much as 10 million Rufiyaa under stimulus loan from BML. HDFC will lend as much as one million Rufiyaa.
These loans have a one year grace period and an interest rate of six percent. Each business will have four years to pay back the loan.
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