News
CEB to support employment in Albania
02 February 2021
PARIS - The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) has approved a €15 million loan to ProCredit Bank Albania to provide small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with access to long-term financing and, thus, to support employment.
SMEs play a key role in Albania’s economy as they employ about 80% of the non-financial sector workforce. Having access to long-term credit is one of the main enablers of SMEs’ growth and, thus, of the creation and maintenance of jobs on the local market. The latter is essential to mitigate the impact of two recent shocks on the Albanian economy: the November 2019 earthquake and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CEB loan to ProCredit Bank Albania will fund SME investments and working capital and thus contribute to mitigating the further deterioration of the labour market because of COVID-19. Some 100 projects are expected to benefit from the financing, particularly in the trade and manufacturing sectors.
The Governor of the CEB, Rolf Wenzel, said: “Job creation and preservation is one of the CEB’s top priorities, so much so now, when our member countries try to recover from the COVID-19 crisis. We are hence pleased to support entrepreneurial activities and employment in Albania in cooperation with ProCredit Bank Albania. The ProCredit Group is a valuable CEB partner for micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprise support in our target group countries in Central and Eastern Europe.”
[***]
[1] Albania joined the Council
of Europe Development Bank in June 1999. Since then, the Bank has provided
€164 million in funding for investments in social housing, health, education,
rural and urban regeneration, and sustainable tourism. In addition, Albania is
the third largest beneficiary of grant funding from the CEB own resources and
its trust funds. More details can be found here.
Set up in 1956, the CEB (Council of Europe Development Bank) has 42 member states. Twenty-two Central, Eastern and South Eastern European countries, forming the Bank's target countries, are listed among the member states. As a major instrument of the policy of solidarity in Europe, the Bank finances social projects by making available resources raised in conditions reflecting the quality of its rating (Aa1 with Moody's, outlook stable, AAA with Standard & Poor's, outlook stable, AA+ with Fitch Ratings, outlook stable and AAA* with Scope Ratings, outlook stable). It thus grants loans to its member states, and to financial institutions and local authorities in its member states for the financing of projects in the social sector, in accordance with its Articles of Agreement.
*unsolicited