60% of the funds will go to small and medium size farmers.
Representatives of the Foundation for Rural Social and Economic Development (Fundesers) noted that about 36 thousand customers will be benefited with a line of credit.
"In the last two and half months Fundeser has recovered foreign funds for up to $ 1.2 million dollars, which will contribute in financing the planned growth for this year," reported Laprensa.com.ni.
Three years after its creation, the system designed to finance SMEs still finds no productive use for some $ 370 million.
An article by Nacion.com reports that "$ 370 million remain unused due to legal problems and more than $ 20 million has been spent in writing off debts from the previous inherited trust. Also, nearly all of its 13 employees are under internal investigation."
A law regulating the microfinance market would open the opportunity to capture savings that currently can only be done through cooperatives and banks.
The article by Byron Dardón in Capital.com.pa, reports that the bill on microfinance is expected this year and has the support of the Financial Inclusion Program of the Treasury of the United States, which promotes the adoption in Latin American countries of market governing rules.
The Swiss cooperation will be for the Rural Competitiveness Project, COMRURAL.
The project will be implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (SAG), and will increase the competitiveness of small and medium producers through partnerships.
"The owner of the SAG, said the Swiss cooperation has been good enough to generate a pre-investment fund that will facilitate and implement a series of activities which will strengthen this project over approximately 6 years and will invest about one billion Lempiras in that sector." reports Latribuna.com.
Congress approved an extension for farmers and agro-industrial debtors so they can solve their credit problems.
Debtors have until March 31st, 2011.
Laprensagrafica.com reports "This new decree gives legal validity to approved legal recourses so that merchant trials against companies who operate under Cooperatives or Farmer Associations, can be suspended."
Development bank “Produzcamos” has $12 million available for livestock breeding loans, but it has only approved 5%.
Solomon Guerrero, from the Nicaraguan Breeders Association (Faganic), believes that the main problem is the long periods required to get a loan with the bank (almost two months).
He told Laprensa.com.ni that “such slow approval processes only worsen the situation.
BCIE assured it will disburse the funds as credits for the financial sector during 2009, specially for micro financing companies.
"All of our customers will keep on relying on the resources" commented Edda Meléndez, Country Manager at the Central American Economic Integration Bank (BCIE). "If they can't have the resources is because of eligibility matters and lack of compliance with requirements, not because BCIE is not disbursing funds", assured Meléndez.
The institution will forgive accumulated and delinquent payments for those lands purchased with the Land Fund (Fondo de Tierras).
The measure to forgive all interests on surcharges for delinquencies and 99% of accrued interests applies to loans requested between 1998 and March 2009. The charges will be reset after January 1, 2011. "Therefore, the amnesty also includes interest on loans between 2009 and 2010."
State banks will have more than $100 million in loans available for agricultural producers.
The Agricultural Development Bank expects to lend $95 million, while the Multisectoral Investment Bank said that it loaned $54 million to the sector last year. However, there is still no estimate on how much it will lend in 2009.
For its part, the president of Banco Hipotecario, Roberto Navarro, told La Prensa Gráfica: "In our $170 million portfolio, nearly 20% [$ 34 million] is for the agricultural sector."
The money is intended for loans to small and medium sized businesses at preferential rates, but Bancrédito, the state bank which manages it, alleges legal flaws that prevent it from granting them.
For Bancrédito, the problems are that these funds require separate supervision and that the interest rates at which the loans need to be made as provided by law would cause the bank losses.