EBRD expands its Green Economy Financing Facility in Uzbekistan

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has expanded a Green Economy Financing Facility (GEFF), launched in Uzbekistan in 2019, to support green finance for small private sector companies investing in green technology solutions.

“The country’s second largest lender UzPromstroybank (UzPSB) is the second financial institution in the country to join the facility supported by grants provided by the EU under its Investment Facility for Central Asia (IFCA). Designated consultants will help UzPSB develop a portfolio of GEFF projects and will work with individual borrowers to assist with their green transformation”, the bank said in a statement.  

UzPSB will raise an EBRD loan of up to $25mn for on-lending to domestic small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) willing to invest in climate mitigation and adaptation technologies and services.

The international bank added: “With the facility the EBRD is contributing to Uzbekistan’s long-term decarbonisation strategy, which is being developed jointly with the Bank and designed to achieve carbon neutrality of the power sector by 2050. The cooperation is promoting environment-friendly solutions and contributing to the addressing of climate risks by helping businesses and households with adapting new technologies”.

The EBRD will also help UzPSB to further expand lending to the local private sector by providing guarantees or participating in investment projects. It will also help to widen the product range, facilitate the bank’s commercialisation and build the capacity of its lending specialists by offering new financial resources of up to $20mn under a risk sharing framework.