OPEC Fund approves $75m funding for developing countries

The OPEC Fund approved $75 million to support socio economic development and COVID19 recovery efforts in several developing countries. 

A $15m public sector loan to Rwanda will support businesses in the sectors most affected by COVID 19 and help safeguard development gains made in the past two decades. The facility will enable the restructuring of existing bank loans to tourism related businesses through the National Bank of Rwanda, and provide lines of credit to large corporates, MSMEs, and savings and credit cooperatives. It will also support a Business Development Fund for vulnerable people engaged in informal work.

Also approved was $60 million under the OPEC Fund’s Private Sector and Trade Finance Facility. The financing will support SMEs in Asia and Latin America as they respond to the impact of COVID 19. One loan will also strengthen agricultural supply chains, which have been especially hard hit by the pandemic in African countries.

OPEC Fund Director-General Dr Abdulhamid Alkhalifa said: “We are mobilizing both public and private sector development finance solutions to help our partner countries respond to the pandemic and meet their needs across different segments of their economies. It is important to be flexible and move quickly in response to developing country needs, now more than ever.”

The OPEC Fund has dedicated $1 billion to collective and coordinated COVID19 related financial assistance for developing countries.