MIGA starts providing guarantees for military risk insurance in Ukraine

MOSCOW. June 22 (Interfax) - The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group agency has started providing guarantees for military risk insurance in Ukraine by tapping from its Ukraine's Reconstruction and Economy Trust Fund (SURE Trust Fund).

Ukrainian media reported with reference to MIGA that the agency signed an agreement with Germany's ProCredit Holding to increase its guarantee from 17.1 million euros to 40.85 million euros during the Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2023) in London.

The increase of MIGA's guarantee covers ProCredit's equity investment in its Ukrainian subsidiary ProCredit Bank, Ukraine (ProCredit Ukraine) to support small and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine and will be in effect until December 2025.

"This is the first project to be implemented with Ukraine's Reconstruction and Economy Trust Fund's involvement. I am sure MIGA's program of military risk insurance for investments in the Ukrainian economy will give the green light to businesspeople who are waiting for an opportunity to start working on our country's reconstruction," Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko said, adding that private investors will play a primary role in Ukraine's recovery.

MIGA's guarantee should help small and medium-sized businesses gain access to urgently needed working capital, offer financing to the agricultural sector to continue grain exports to global markets, and provide Ukrainians with reliable and essential banking services, MIGA Executive Vice President Hiroshi Matano said.

ProCredit Holding AG&Co. KGaA, based in Germany's Frankfurt-am-Main, is the parent company of a group of commercial banks oriented at the development of small and medium enterprises. In Ukraine, the company owns ProCredit Ukraine.

MIGA was created in 1988 as a World Group Bank member to promote foreign direct investment in emerging economies by helping to mitigate the risks of restrictions on currency conversion and transfer, breach of contract by governments, expropriation, and war and civil disturbance.

Since its establishment, MIGA has issued over $70 billion in guarantees across 123 developing countries in support of more than 1,000 projects.