Bank of Maldives has opened application opportunity for the Covid-19 Relief Loan initiated by the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The country’s national bank announced that the Covid-19 Relief Loan was launched under the Covid-19 relief support for Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through funding from EIB, facilitated by the Maldivian government.

Interested individuals have been urged to forward the application forms along with all required documents, to the bank viaemail.

BML has urged those who wish to acquire more information regarding the relief loan to access the designatedwebsite.

BML announced the additional relief financing for SMEs due to the ongoing pandemic, during November.

This was done with an aim to help sustain SMEs in the tourism and industry sectors in the country, and to speed up post-covid economic recovery.

The new relief support is open to SMEs with fewer than 3,000 employees and under the initiative, businesses will be able to finance project up to MVR 15.42 million at a lower interest rate of six percent with a repayment period of four to seven years.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a loan worth EUR 20 million with the Maldivian government on June 16.

The loan was granted as part of the Team Europe Action to assist in the post-Covid-19 recovery efforts of the country's economy, protect jobs and support Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) operating in the travel and tourism industry sectors.

It is also expected to improve access to finance and reinforce the local banking sector and enable the island nation to recover faster from the economic impacts of the global pandemic.

EIB revealed that this is the first Covid-19 related operation of the bank in Asia and a part of the 5.2-billion-euro support package for countries outside of the EU, on April 8.

However, this is the third operation for the EIB in Maldives since establishment, during 2005.

EIB has thus far invested 115 million euros in the Maldives in three operations supporting the local energy and SME sectors