Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurship Scaling Project

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The development objective of the Financial Inclusion and Entrepreneurship Scaling Project for Malawi is to increase access to financial services, promote entrepreneurship and capabilities of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Malawi including addressing Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) implications. The project comprises of four components. The first component, liquidity enhancement for MSMEs aims at increasing the supply of wholesale financing to the project’s participating financial intermediary (PFIs) and scaling lending and or investments to MSMEs. It consists of following sub-components: (i) credit line and special support for COVID-19 response for MSMEs, and technical assistance to participating financial intermediaries; and (ii) de-risking financing to MSMEs. The second component, scaling entrepreneurship and building firm capabilities will facilitate the building of firms’ capabilities, with measures to enhance the quality of business support provided by private and public business development service (BDS) providers. It consists of following sub-components: (i) building firm capability for SMEs; and (ii) developing capacity of SME Development Institute (SMEDI). The third component, enhancing the enabling environment for supporting the financial inclusion and growth of entrepreneurs builds on activities supported under the Financial Sector Technical Assistance Project (FSTAP). It consists of following sub-components: (i) improving financial infrastructure and regulatory framework; and (ii) increasing financial literacy and consumer protection. The fourth component, project implementation support will be used to meet the costs of the project implementation unit (PIU) in its capacity as the implementing entity, including costs related to fiduciary and safeguards aspects and monitoring and evaluation (M and E).