Western NIS Enterprise Fund Announces a New Lending Project to Social Enterprises in Eastern Ukraine

Western NIS Enterprise Fund (WNISEF) announces a call for applications for low-interest loans for social enterprises in Eastern Ukraine. The new $100,000 WNISEF project “Affordable Loans for Social Enterprises in Eastern Ukraine” is being implemented with the support of the American people via the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) within the agreement with the Western NIS Enterprise Fund under the USAID Economic Resilience Activity (ERA).

Applications will be accepted from July 22 to August 31, 2020. After the deadline for submission, applications will be reviewed, and from three to five loans will be issued in partnership with Oschadbank at low interest rates for social enterprises in Eastern Ukraine.

“This is the first example of cooperation of our program with other institutions, which will allow us to use our well-established and successful mechanism of affordable lending to solve specific problems from our partners, in this case – the economic support of Eastern Ukraine. We focus on supporting social enterprises, since we are confident that strengthening their commercial component will contribute to more effective solving pressing social and environmental issues in these areas,” said Vasyl Nazaruk, WNISEF Impact Investing Program Manager.

A loan for one enterprise will be $10,000 to $40,000 in Ukrainian Hryvnia equivalent. The interest rate will be 5% per annum, which is the lowest rate for Ukrainian entrepreneurs. Loans will be issued for a period of 6-36 months, and upon repayment, the released resources will be reused for new loans.

Eligible applicants include social enterprises from Donetsk and Luhansk Regions which are profitable and are operating for at least 12 months.

The project is implemented under WNISEF Impact Investing Program, which aims to provide support to private businesses and individual entrepreneurs in order to achieve social and environmental impact in Ukraine through the creation of an affordable lending mechanism with partner banks Oschadbank and Kredobank, training and consulting services, coaching and mentoring.

The program is operating in Ukraine since 2016; 22 loans worth more than UAH 24.5 million have been issued to social enterprises from 8 regions of Ukraine since, and the amount of social investments by enterprises has exceeded UAH 28.5 million.