World Bank permits rerouting up to $132 mln to loans for Ukrainian farmers

MOSCOW. March 31 (Interfax) - The World Bank has announced its decision to allow $132 million in remaining funds of the $200-million Accelerating Private Investment in Agriculture to Ukraine program, launched in 2019, to be used to improve Ukrainian farmers' access to financing through programs of support and partial loan guarantees for small farms.

"The World Bank is working with international partners to quickly help the government of Ukraine support agricultural recovery, prioritizing programs that help financing for the next production season (including partial credit guarantees), horticultural production for nutrition security, and efficient irrigation and water management," Ukrainian media quoted World Bank Regional Country Director for Eastern Europe Arup Banerji as saying.

The restructured program complements the efforts of the United Nations, European Union, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to support the agricultural recovery in Ukraine, the bank said. In particular, it contributes to the Agricultural Resilience Initiative launched by the USAID in early August 2022 that aimed to mobilize $250 million financing for supporting Ukraine's agriculture.

The World Bank last time allocated $31 million as part of this program in April 2022, according to the bank's website.

Head of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada's budget committee Roksolana Pidlasa, for her part, said on social media on Thursday that the authorities disbursed 1.44 billion hryvni to Ukrainian entrepreneurs over the first two months of 2023. Most of these funds (1.33 billion hryvni) were allocated via the Entrepreneurship Development Fund.

The overall amount of spending on the Entrepreneurship Development Fund will stand at 16 billion hryvni this year, or 2.5-fold more than the actual amount of this spending in 2022.