Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail has revealed the government has issued USD 52 million in loans so far through the SME Development Finance Corporation (SDFC). At a press conference held at the President's Office, Minister Fayyaz said SDFC was given the approval to issue USD 85 million in loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in 2019.
Further, the minister said the government has received requests for loans totaling 65 million US dollars for non-COVID-19 related issues and has issued loans totaling USD 34 million. He also said the government has issued USD 24 million in COVID-19 relief loans to 1,519 businesses and 685 individuals. COVID-19 relief loans worth USD 61 million were issued to large businesses through the Bank of Maldives (BML) and USD 24 million in COVID-19 relief loans were issued to 2,200 SMEs through SDFC, he added.
Furthermore, Minister Fayyaz said the government has issued loans to 161 restaurants/cafés. He made the statement following a claim from the Restaurant Association of the Maldives (RAM) that only four restaurants/cafés received loans issued by the government last year. The minister said 161 restaurants/cafés had received USD 3.2 million in loans to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Five restaurants/cafés had received USD 1 million in loans from BML, while 156 restaurants/cafés received USD 2.2 million US dollars in loans from SDFC, out of which 90 businesses are established in the Greater Male' Region, he said.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih recently announced the curfew in the Greater Male' Region would be from 2000hrs to 0400hrs and restaurants/cafés would be allowed to resume operations and provision of services during non-curfew hours, including dine-in services.