Minister for Economy, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says as of the 1st of this month, 5,471 loan applications have been approved under the Micro, Small and Medium Entities Credit Guarantee Scheme.
Sayed-Khaiyum 47% are micro-businesses, 31% are small businesses, 13% are medium-sized businesses and 9% are large businesses.
He says around 16% of the total loan value is for micro-businesses, 21% is for small businesses, 26% is for medium-sized businesses and 37% is for large businesses.
Sayed-Khaiyum says the government will also pay out $203 million as an interest subsidy for all the loans.
He adds the scheme is to encourage and expand private-sector lending to MSMEs and also complement the government's initiative to promote their development, investment and local business activity.
The Minister says in January this year, a total of 264 businesses with $11.3 million in loans were covered under the scheme.
He adds only 30 businesses have defaulted to date.
