Promote Access to Finance, Entrepreneurship and Employment in Mali

The development objective of the Promote Access to Finance, Entrepreneurship, and Employment in Mali Project for Mali is to improve access to finance, entrepreneurship, and income generating activities for vulnerable segments in Mali. The project comprises of five components. The first component is promoting sustainable financial inclusion and fintech development. It consists of following sub-components: (i) strengthen the supervision and performance of the microfinance sector; (ii) increase usage of transaction accounts and support fintech uptake; and (iii) improving financial education and consumer protection. The second component is provision of risk-sharing and capacity-building for micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It consists of following sub-components: (i) provide risk-sharing through the private guarantee fund; and (ii) providing tailored capacity-building to MSMEs for addressing existing structural gaps and Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) related challenges. The third component is support income-generating activities (IGA) and employment. It consists of following sub-components: (i) support IGAs; and (ii) labor-intensive public works program. The fourth component, contingent emergency response (CERC) aims to provide flexibility to re-focus the scope of the activities, in case of a natural disaster, security, emergency and or catastrophic events, which will be triggered following proclamation of a state of emergency or declaration of disaster. The fifth component, project management and implementation support provide resources to support project management and overall project implementation.