The Inter-American Development Bank today announced the approval of a $150 million loan to Banco do Nordeste do Brazil to support a comprehensive program to strengthen the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Northeast of Brazil.
The project, whose total cost is $300 million, includes a grant component of $69.3 million from local resources that will finance technical assistance, training, technology research and promotion, export promotion and institutional strengthening.
Loans for productive investments of up to a total of $224.6 million will be provided to enterprises through a mechanism that will be established in the Banco do Nordeste that will channel funds to financial intermediaries, which will in turn lend to firms.
The program will increase the entrepreneurial, technological and global competitive potential of small and medium-sized businesses in a region of the country that historically has had a large concentration of poverty, and it will reinforce strategic regional economic development initiatives already under way by public- and private-sector agencies.
The IDB loan is for a 20-year term, with a 4-year grace period, at the variable annual interest rate, now 7.03 percent.
The Bank has provided nearly $3 billion in direct and indirect support of small and medium-sized businesses in Brazil in recent years by financing for investments, training, and technological innovation.