Partnership to provide guarantee up to $7m

Source: The Fiji Times
Author: Timoci Vula

Fiji Development Bank's (FDB) partnership with the Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD) and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) will provide a guarantee line of up to $7million for the bank to further develop targeted credit lines to entrepreneurs, particularly women entrepreneurs and green projects.

This guarantee is anticipated to make it easier for the development bank to develop a finance strategy for green and climate-friendly products and services.

FDB chief executive officer Saud Minam told The Fiji Times that a deal signed last year with the AFD provided a guarantee in a way that up to 70 per cent of its loans the bank wrote under their criteria would be guaranteed by AFD.

He said that guarantee came with a timeline and would help the bank move into new areas of green-friendly products.

"It (guarantee) is Euro 3million ($F7.31m) and we've almost utilised close to 20 per cent of that and in a very short period of time," Mr Minam said.

"That performance has been very good in that portfolio," he said, and indicated revisiting that financing facility to support local entrepreneurs.

AFD Regional Director for Pacific Ocean Virginie Bleitrach said this partnership, at present, meant an exchange of experience, expertise and lessons learnt from the field.

Mr Minam said the assistance meant overseas experts could come to Fiji and train their staff, and in turn help drive the economy. FDB is the first public development bank in the Pacific to partner with AFD.

"We are very proud to start this partnership to strengthen the capacity of FDB to support local development and entrepreneurship, especially for women and green projects," Ms Bleitrach told The Fiji Times.

She said driving change through the financial systems would consolidate and accelerate the partners' collective efforts to support energy transition, climate change adaptation, biodiversity conservation in communities across the country and the region.

GGGI Country Representative for Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga and Vanuatu Norbert Maass said this program aligned well with their growing portfolio of climate finance initiatives, including climate finance access network.

He said they looked forward to supporting FDB's work in:

n developing loan products and financing strategies

n enhancing climate impact measurement and reporting

n building a robust Climate Finance Strategy, and

n developing resource mobilisation and risk management plans.