A majority of loans for businesses affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, issued through the SME Development Finance Corporation Pvt Ltd (SDFC) were provided for those in commerce sector.

According to the latest information publicized by the corporation, loans for 551 individuals have been issued out of the approved 775. This is MVR 538.6 million of the approved MVR 970.3 million.

Out of this, 22 loans were issued for the farming industry, 30 loans were for construction, 79 of them were from fisheries industry. Moreover, 49 loans were from the manufacturing industry, and 104 loans were from the travel and tourism industry as well as 41 for transport services. This leaves 226 loans-the highest number- for the commerce industry.

The 226 loans from the commerce industry comprises of MVR 170.5 million. Tourism industry loans total MVR 134.9 million, MVR 105.6 million for the fisheries industry, MVR 9.9 million for the farming industry and MVR 48.1 million for transport.

Furthermore, 432 of these loans were leased to men, which is MVR 434.7 million. Loans amounting to MVR 24.1 million were given to women, which was 48 loans.

71 loans were given to individual small businesses which was MVR 79.8 million. Out of the loans leased by SDFC, 190 was for members of the youth community, costing a total approximate of MVR 155.5 million.

This year the government has prioritized giving assistance to small and medium businesses, with the government having allocated MVR 400 million in loans for SMEs in the state budget for 2021.