OECS MSME Guarantee Facility Project

closed

The development objective of the Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (MSME) Guarantee Facility Project for OECS Countries is to facilitate additional financial intermediation for MSMEs by supporting the establishment of a regional partial guarantee corporation. It has two project components. First component, Capitalize the Partial Credit Guarantee Fund will support the capitalization of the Credit Guarantee Fund (CGF) for the provision of Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme (PCGs) to participating lenders (PLs). Second component, Project Management, Operating Costs, and Lender Training will support the Eastern Caribbean Partial Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECPCGC), which is responsible for the coordination, implementation, and supervision of the project. The project will finance, among others: (a) the recruitment and training of the ECPCGC team members; (b) training of loan officers at the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) supervised lenders; (c) the acquisition of goods such as equipment, software, and furniture for the ECPCGC; (d) monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities; (e) the financing of operating costs; and (f) the carrying out of minor works for the installation of any necessary computer hardware and minor refurbishing works of office facilities. The funds under this component will also be used to cover the annual audits of the firm’s activities, which are required by the ECPCGC Agreement. It will be important to review the contractual arrangements for the audit, including the terms of reference.