Jordanian micro entrepreneurs and small businesses – vital engines of the country’s economy but too often lacking access to long-term capital – received a significant boost in the form of a $2 million loan from OPIC through its partnership with Citibank N.A. Jordan.
The loan will support the growth of the Microfinance portfolio of Tamweelcom, the leading microfinance institution in Jordan and the MENA region. Tamweelcom is a non-profit MFI owned by Noor Al-Hussein Foundation/ King Hussein Foundation, and has served over 141,000 clients, 93 percent of whom are women, with an average loan size of $600.
Small businesses contribute approximately 40 percent of Jordan’s gross domestic and account for nearly 70 percent of created job opportunities and 99 percent of business establishments in the country, according to official figures. Yet SME projects receive less than ten percent of all credit facilities extended by financial institutions.
This loan facility is part of the global $250 million program Citi and OPIC announced in September 2009, to provide microfinance lending to borrowers in emerging markets worldwide.
