Attijari Bank Tunisia gets €20 Mln funding to support small Businesses

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced on Friday a €20 million risk-sharing facility (RSF) to enable Attijari Bank Tunisia, a subsidiary of the Moroccan Attijari Wafabank, support Tunisian small businesses to gain better access to financing.

Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, existing challenges to access funding and liquidity have become even more acute and further constrained the growth of many private businesses.

The RSF is one of three core financing frameworks of the EBRD’s Small Business Initiative, a program dedicated to supporting and developing local private companies. The EBRD offers partner banks funded or unfunded risk participation schemes, taking on a part of the risk of the sub-loans extended by partner banks to clients.

Since the start of its operations in Tunisia in 2012, the EBRD has invested close to €1.2 billion on 52 projects carried out in this North African country, and supported over 1,200 SMEs.