The Ministry of Finance has revealed that a total of MVR 198 million has been issued under the government’s Recovery Loan Scheme for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

The ministry’s lateststatisticsreveal that by July 27, the total amount disbursed to both business and self-employed applicants through the SME Development and Finance Corporation (SDFC) sits at MVR 198 million for 1,427 applications.

A total of 1,618 businesses applied for a total of MVR 452.2 million out of which SDFC approved 1,217 applications, totaling MVR 286.3 million.

55 applications were rejected from businesses and 1,186 were sanctioned.

The total disbursed for 1,012 businesses reach MVR 185.6 million.

Further, SDFC approved 494 applications out of the 1,365 applications received through self-employed or freelance workers.

Out of this, 377 applications were rejected and 477 sanctioned.

MVR 12.4 million was disbursed to 415 self-employed or freelance workers.

By sector, the greatest number of loan applications approved by SDFC were for the commercial sector, at 658 totaling MVR 156.1 million.

Second comes the tourism sector where 219 applications were approved out o the 291 applications received, totaling MVR 50.4 million.

Further, SDFC also approved a total of MVR 40.6 million for the construction company, to a total of 152 applicants.

The ministry partnered with SDFC to administer the Covid-19 Recovery Scheme targeted towards SMEs and self-employed and freelance workers, as part of the government’s Economic Relief Package.

The scheme is being implemented via the “Viyafaari Ehee” loan introduced by SDFC and is targeted towards SMEs facing difficulties in meeting their operational requirements in the face of the Covid-19 crisis.

Only SMEs with an annual turnover of less than MVR 10 million in 2019 are eligible for the loan.

Eligible SMEs may apply for loans up to 10 percent of its annual sales turnover for the past year -capped up to MVR 500,000- at six percent interest per annum for a three-year period, said the ministry.

Further, it has been revealed that the repayment period excludes the grace period up to six months in which no interest is charged. Funding is liable on SMEs that do not terminate local employees due to the Covid-19 outbreak, as well as during the funding period.