The new small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) financing program has been launched, which aims to promote lending to agriculture and SMEs, without collateral, with respective interests of 2% and 3.5%.

Erald Themeli, director of the Monetary Policy Department at the Bank of Albania, said that "the program has now become active and any business in this sector can go to one of the second-tier banks to show interest in financial support".

He noted that the program, financed by the Bank of Albania with a total value of Lek 25 billion, has been distributed to second-tier banks to support lending to small businesses, especially agricultural ones.

According to him, the Bank of Albania's analyses have shown that although there is a relatively fast, stable, and solid growth of lending in general for the Albanian economy and for businesses in particular, lending to SMEs is moving at a much slower pace compared to lending to the large business sector or corporations. Meanwhile, the share of credit going to the agricultural industry does not exceed 2% of total bank credit to businesses.

For this reason, the recent initiative of the Bank of Albania for the approval and implementation of a Financing Program for micro, small, and medium-sized businesses, offers an opportunity to open a new chapter in lending to the agricultural sector.

The Bank of Albania has continuously called on commercial banks to prioritize lending to the agricultural sector, which is financed 4 times less than micro-businesses, although it has great potential for stimulating economic growth and expanding its base in all sectors of the economy.

Themeli said that "the fund made available by the Bank of Albania amounts to Lek 25 billion. The fund is disbursed by commercial banks in the form of a loan with a more favorable interest rate than current market rates, with a ceiling rate of 3.5%, against the 5.5% or 6% interest currently applied by banks. While the uncollateralized lending for business, which will be covered by the government's sovereign guarantee fund".

He announced that commercial banks have applied for and received this fund from the Bank of Albania for business lending and it is the commercial banks themselves that select borrowers based on the applications. The loan duration is up to three years, while the implementation of this program closes at the end of 2025.

This program will support investments in greenhouses, agro-processing, fishing, aquaculture, agro-tourism, and technological innovation in the service of rural development.