About 30 women owning and managing businesses in agriculture took part today, May 21, in an outreach conference focused on business development opportunities and held by MCA Moldova under the Millennium Challenge Compact funded by the US Government.
These women represented various kinds of businesses, mainly growing fruit, grapes, berries, vegetables or dealing with food industry.
The objective of the event was to make an overview of the Credit Facility loans, the assistance and training opportunities for businesswomen and the businesses in which Compact loans were invested. Encouraging women to take credit facility loans is an initiative meant to boost the empowerment of women in Moldova and motivate them to be pro-active in the country’s economic life, decision making and, last but not least, lead an active social life.
To facilitate the access of new micro/small/medium businesses, including the ones owned by women, this May the minimum loan amount was cut from 50 000 USD to 20 000 UDS. The maximum amount has been left unchanged – 600 000 USD. On the other hand, the eligible area was expanded from 8 to 13 rayons (Ungheni, Nisporeni, Călărași (new), Telenești (new), Strășeni (new), Hîncești (new), Leova, Cantemir (new), Cahul, Orhei, Criuleni, Dubăsari, Anenii Noi), Chisinau municipality and TAU Gagauzia. The Credit Facility is implemented by 7 participating banks - Moldova Agroindbank, Victoriabank, Moldindconbank, Comerțbank, Banca Socială, Mobiasbancă – Groupe Societe Generale and Energbank.
Kara McDonald, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Moldova, said that the success stories of the businesswomen are critical in inspiring a culture of entrepreneurship among the Moldovan women. To this end, the Millennium Challenge Corporation decided to reduce the minimum amount of the Compact loans to 20 thousand USD so as to make these loans available for women, who as a rule own small or medium businesses.
Valentina Badrajan, the Executive Director of MCA Moldova, stressed that the Compact Credit Facility also encourages women to cooperate and make larger investments in the post-harvest infrastructure, and thus become competitive on the agricultural market. She added that the development of businesses in agriculture will create new opportunities for the rural localities and jobs and the people will have the chance to stay at home instead of going abroad to look for jobs.
The participants in the event said they learned a lot of information useful in starting up and expanding businesses in agriculture, including about the available training and assistance opportunities.
The 12 million USD Post-Harvest Credit Facility is one of the four complex activities of the Transition to High Value Agriculture Project of the Compact funded by the U.S. Government through the Millennium Challenge Corporation. 21 credits have been made so far amounting to 4.3 million USD, including 16 loans amounting to about 3.2 million 3,2 million USD (75%) that were invested in the construction/refurbishment of cold storage for fruit and vegetables with a total capacity of about 16.1 thousand tones.
By 2015 about 10 million USD are expected to be disbursed for Compact loans, including from the revolving funds.
