SME Development Finance Corporation (SDFC) will temporarily halt accepting loan applications for the rest of the year, starting from this Friday, in order to close their finances and further improve the quality of their services.

SDFC announced that they will resume accepting loan applications on 1st February 2021.

SDFC has disbursed loans worth a total of MVR 395 million to 285 small and middle-income businesses this year, across 144 islands, with 33% of those loans being specially reserved for women and youth. Majority of the loans facilitated by SDFC this year were for parties within the tourism sector and commercial businesses.

2020 was an extraordinarily difficult year for small and middle-income businesses, freelancers and self-employed workers as effects of the Covid-19 pandemic shook the Maldivian economy from the ground up. SDFC played a huge role helping sustain these businesses as part of the government's economic recovery package by collaborating with the Ministry of Finance to introduce the "Covid-19 Viyafaari Ehee" loan scheme, which distributed a total of MVR 376.5 million among 2173 parties by December 17.

SDFC stopped issuing the Covid-19 Viyafaari Ehee loan from December 16, following the finance ministry's decision to halt Covid-19 recovery loans schemes.

These loans helped lighten the economic burden on those most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, namely the small to middle income businesses, freelancers and self-employed workers, paving a way for them to work towards recovering the losses they faced this year.

SDFC aims to further strengthen their money lending framework by improving the quality and efficiency of service, and to remain a trusted partner in economic development to pivotal SMEs as the country hopes to recover from the financial strain experienced in this first year post-pandemic.