Japanese agency provides financing for quake relief

ANKARA

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is providing loans of up to 20 billion yen ($139 million) to support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises that were affected by the February earthquakes.

The loan agreement was signed between JICA and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization of Türkiye (KOSGEB) in the capital Ankara.

“Since MSMEs are the pillars of the country's economy, this project will provide liquidity support to such affected enterprises so that they can resume and maintain operations and employment,” JICA said in a statement.

SMEs will be offered loans with a 36-month maturity, with a grace period of 24 months, and interest-free three equal installments for 12 months, Industry and Technology Minister Fatih Kacır said.

“In the program we launched in November in cooperation with the World Bank, we have provided a total of 12.8 billion Turkish Liras of support to 39,680 SMEs in the earthquake zone,” Kacır said.

The World Bank provided $450 million in financing under the "Türkiye Post-Earthquake Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Recovery" project to support business continuity and sustainable growth of viable MSMEs in the 11 earthquake-affected provinces.

Last week, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, announced a financing package of up to $530 million to support thousands of micro and smaller businesses in the provinces devastated by the earthquakes and boost recovery efforts.