Micromed Program: Tunisia Gets EUR 4 Million

Tunisia will get EUR 4 million in the framework of the Micromed Program, an initiative launched by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to help promote the microfinance sector in Mediterranean partner countries.
The MicroMED Tunisia program was established in response to a call for assistance from the Tunisian Administration in its endeavor to develop the microfinance sector after the Arab Spring.
The program actually aims at improving the regulatory environment and the ability of microfinance institutions to grow responsively, the EIB said in a release.
Thus, the amount granted to Tunisia will finance the creation of an observatory of finance, in addition to the development of the financial system.
The program will provide capacity building to microfinance institutions, increase transparency of the sector and facilitate the emergence of relevant inclusive financial products, especially for young entrepreneurs. This will prepare the ground for future equity and debt operations in Tunisia, the release said.
Tunisia is the first country in the Southern Mediterranean to benefit from this program, which will also benefit, in its second phase, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.
The Micromed initiative will be financed by Luxembourg cooperation and implemented by Luxembourg NGO Appui au Développement Autonome (ADA). The project will start by the end of this year and will run over the next four to six years.
EIB committed over EUR 27 million in the past ten years to the microfinance sector in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region. It has thus supported local microfinance institutions that have together over 800,000 active micro-borrowers. In addition, the EIB provided financing to 2,300 micro, small and medium enterprises, which created 30,000 jobs. It has also granted more than EUR 102 million for technical assistance operations to build knowledge and capacity in order to advance the integration of the region.