BOG II

completed

The project is to provide a credit line of up to $5 million to the Bank of Georgia (BoG or the bank) for onlending for acquisition, improvement, construction or upgrading of both residential homes and small commercial properties. The credit line will also be made available for onlending to SMEs for working capital and investment purposes. The bank has identified demand for credit by SMEs outside of Tbilisi, where borrowers have very little access to formal financial services. This project is IFC’s second with the Bank of Georgia and will build on the success of a similar credit line extended three years ago. In April 2000, IFC signed a $3 million credit line with the bank, which was used to finance the acquisition, construction and improvement of both commercial and residential real property. This was the first time in Georgia’s history that a credit line was targeted directly at mortgage financing, and satisfied a demand to expand and improve the existing housing stock.