VIENNA, (Pakistan Point News - 28th Jul, 2020) The OPEC Fund for International Development, OFID, has approved US$75 million to support socio-economic development and COVID-19 recovery efforts in several developing countries.
A $15m public sector loan to Rwanda will support businesses in the sectors most affected by COVID-19 and help safeguard development gains made in the past two decades. The facility will enable the restructuring of existing bank loans to tourism-related businesses through the National Bank of Rwanda, and provide lines of credit to large corporates, MSMEs, and savings and credit cooperatives.
It will also support a business Development Fund for vulnerable people engaged in informal work.
Also approved, was $60 million under the OPEC Fund’s Private Sector and Trade Finance Facility. The financing will support SMEs in Asia and Latin America as they respond to the impact of COVID-19. One loan will also strengthen agricultural supply chains – which have been especially hard hit by the pandemic – in African countries.
Commenting on the funding, OPEC Fund Director-General Dr. Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said, "We are mobilising both public and private sector development finance solutions to help our partner countries respond to the pandemic and meet their needs across different segments of their economies. It is important to be flexible and move quickly in response to developing country needs, now more than ever."
The OPEC Fund has dedicated $1 billion to collective and coordinated COVID-19-related financial assistance for developing countries.
OFID was established in January 1976 by the then 13 member countries of OPEC; including the United Arab Emirates. It is the development finance institution established as a channel of aid to developing countries.
