The eight commercial banks of Angola that have joined the credit support programme, which aims to increase domestic production and replace imports, approved 23 loan requests totalling 38.6 billion kwanzas (US$79 million) in the fourth quarter of 2019, said the Ministry of Economy and Planning.
The information was disclosed after an agreement was signed with Banco de Poupança e Crédito (BPC), which became the ninth bank to join the programme that aims to increase production of 54 domestic products identified in the Programme for Support to National Production, Diversification of Exports and Import Substitution (Prodesi).
The ministerial statement said the programme’s signatory banks said they had received 107 requests for financing for a total of 283 billion kwanzas (US$579 million).
The largest amount was granted to bioenergy company Companhia de Bioenergia de Angola, for the production of sugar and its derivatives in the province of Malanje (5.7 billion kwanzas), followed by Fazenda Girassol, with a project for corn and bean production in Zaire province (3.8 billion kwanzas).
Among the pending measures to increase credit on which the Ministry of Economy is still working is the capitalisation of the Credit Guarantee Fund and the immunisation against exchange rate risk of the credit line granted by the African Development Bank to Banco de Poupança e Crédito.
Source: Macauhub