Promoting Access to Finance for Productive Purposes for MSMEs

The objective of the Promoting Access to Finance for Productive Purposes for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Project for Ecuador is to promote access to finance for productive purposes for micro, small and medium enterprises in the context of the COVID-19 crisis. The Project has four main components. 1. Strengthening the institutional capacity of National Finance Corporation (CFN) component will provide technical assistance and capacity building to CFN. Under this component the Project will finance, inter alia: (a) Design of a corporate governance strengthening plan for CFN; (b) Assessment of the financial viability of CFN to ascertain the net present value of its assets; (c) Assessment of the current strategy of CFN and development of an updated business plan to align with the results of the corporate governance reform and the financial viability assessment; (d) Design and implementation of a monitoring and evaluation strategy to measure the effect of access to credit on final borrowers, including female-owned enterprises and first-time borrowers; (e) Design and implementation of an environmental and social management system and standards for CFN’s second-tier lending; and (f) Technical assistance to strengthen the capacity of financial intermediaries accessing second-tier financial products, including the strengthening of their environmental and social management systems. 2. Development and Improvement of Financial Products to Promote Access to Finance for Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) component will support CFN to develop new or improve existing financial products to promote access to finance for productive purposes, especially for MSMEs. This component has three subcomponents. Under 2a. Technical assistance subcomponent, the Project will finance a technical assistance to, inter alia: (i) strengthen NGF; and (ii) design, test and evaluate new financial products for MSMEs. 2b Capitalization of NGF for special COVID-19 program subcomponent will...