Male’, Maldives – SME Development Finance Corporation has granted loans to 2053 businesses in association with the Finance Ministry as part of the Economic Recovery Package of the Government.
According to the SDFC, the loans were granted to 639 self employed sole traders and 1414 small or mid-level businesses. The statistics revealed by the company shows that 31.1 percent of the businesses granted loans were sole traders and the remaining 68.9 percent were for small businesses.
SDFC also revealed the percentage granted for businesses include, 0.6 percent for Agriculture, 38.4 percent for Commerce, 9.3 percent for Construction, 5.3 percent for Manufacturing, 10.8 percent for tourism and 3.6 percent for transport.
The “Viyafaari Ehee” loans are granted to businesses for the purpose of giving out salaries, paying rent and utilities with an interest rate of 6% and grace period of 7 months. Eligible businesses and self-employed individuals can apply for the loan online through the SDFC website.
The Government also recently introduced a recovery package issued through Bank of Maldives for large businesses. The eligibility criteria for businesses states that applicants should have been profitable in 2019, and that they must not have any non-performing facilities at any financial institution. Resorts have the same criteria, with an extra criteria of having a positive cash flow forecast for 3 years.
