This week IFAD launched  the Platform for Remittances, Investment and Migrants’ Entrepreneurship (PRIME) Central Asia Initiative in Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

The aim of the investment is to boost competitiveness in the small and medium enterprise finance market while also improving financial inclusion, creating jobs, and supporting the nation's climate goals. 

The financing will allow Shinhan Finance to continue providing much-needed longer-term loans and enhance the resilience of smaller enterprises, which are critical for economic growth and job creation.

The investment in the nation's recovering financial sector is part of a wider SME strategy, which aims to help spur a greater range of financial products and services such as psychometric scoring solutions and payment systems reforms.

The loan is intended to boost its services to micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises – especially in rural areas – to “improve financial inclusion and contribute to Kazakhstan’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

This loan is ADB's first intervention in Kazakhstan's financial sector in several years. It will support KMF's efforts to improve financial inclusion and contribute to Kazakhstan's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The credit aims to strengthen financial sector stability, diversify financial solutions, and increase access to financial services in support of Nepal's green, resilient, and inclusive development.

This collaboration will enable the last-mile consumers in Nepal to reap the benefits of an open interoperable payments system driving immediate payment transfers between bank accounts and merchant payments in real-time.

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Kazakhstan stand to benefit from a new investment which aims to help businesses recover from the economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, resume operations, and adapt to the post-crisis environment.

At a time when the world economy was hard hit by the ongoing pandemic, improvement in Nepal’s remittances inflow has made it easier for the government to operate.