An-Najah News - According to a press release issued by the German representative office the European-Palestinian Credit Guarantee Foundation (EPCGF) launched a new initiative to improve access to finance for small and medium enterprises in the wake of the economic crisis caused by COVID-19 which  will allow EPCGF partner banks to apply for partial risk guarantees at special conditions that will make it easier for them to extend short-term loans worth of around 65 million NIS to small and medium enterprises.

The special COVID-19 initiative is supported by an ongoing project with funding from Germany through its development bank KfW and is a part of the Team Europe response.

The European Union has furthermore committed additional new funding to scale-up this initiative in the next months. Based on the market demand EPCGF would be also considering a further contribution of its own capital for this initiative.

On the occasion of the launch, the German Representative Christian Clages commented: “EPCGF has a proven track record to support small and medium enterprises. We are proud to support this new initiative and hope it will benefit hundreds of small entrepreneurs and businesses and will help them to survive the crisis.”

The European Union Head of Cooperation Gerhard Krause added: “This EPCGF initiative is a very timely undertaking that demonstrates dynamism and ability to adapt of the Palestinian private sector. We are pleased to see that our support to EPCGF can help ease liquidity pressures on companies that are under stress now.”