Malé, Maldives – The repayment period of Covid-19 assistance loans issued through Bank Of Maldives (BML) has been extended by the Ministry of Finance.
Loans launched with an initial grace period of 6 months, and today’s announcement has allowed businesses to apply for 6 month extension, increasing the total grace period to one year.
Companies or Individuals wanting to increase the grace periods may do so by emailing BML 30 days before their existing grace period ends. If the 6 month grace period is already over, or there is less than 30 days remaining, BML has requested to email them at ecoveryscheme@bml.com.mv before the 1st of next month.
Regarding these Covid-19 loans, BML’s website states that “this government scheme allows businesses financially affected by the COVID-19 pandemic to apply for financing. Bank of Maldives will administer the funds to all resorts, as well as any other businesses with over MVR 10 million turnover. This is an unsecured facility provided at 6% interest per annum with a repayment period of 3 years.”
Eligible resorts can secure loans up to MVR 7.71 million, with non resort businesses allowed up to MVR 1 million in financing.
The eligibility criteria for businesses state that the 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.
BML, has made multiple efforts to support post Covid-19 recovery efforts, and have recently brought favorable changes to multiple personal loans, and introduced a no mortgage Green Loan, and has offered Covid-19 relief financing to Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB).
