WB EDIF in your country

WB EDIF in your country

WB EDIF operates in 7 Western Balkan economies
and provides millions of euros of financing and support to SMEs
WB EDIF operates in 7 West Balkan countries
and provides millions of euros of support.

WB EDIF
in yout country

WB EDIF operates in 7
West Balkan countries
and provides
millions of euros of support.

Montenegro

WB EDIF has seen very good take-up from the Guarantee Facility in Montenegro, whereby under the first round of financing, the EIF deployed a guarantee instrument with Crnogorska Komercijalna Banka (CKB) in 2014. A second allocation to CKB took place in 2016 – stemming from an additional EU financing contribution owing to the general success of the instrument in the region.

The Fund Managers of ENIF and ENEF have also been actively exploring investment potential and sourcing pipeline in the country. ENIF made two investments the first one into Daktilograf/Om3ga Solutions: a speech-to-text converter based on their proprietary voice recognition engine intending to primarily help journalists transcribe their interviews and help with transcripts of board meetings of big corporations in Slavic languages and the second one into Uhura: software which helps financial institutions speed up review and decision-making processes by using an AI platform that streamlines the process of analysing and drafting contracts and agreements.

On the Support Services side

  • SMEs in Montenegro have received advisory services through 36 projects under the EBRD’s Advice for Small Businesses (ASB) to help their growth, competitiveness and bankability
  • Led by the OECD, the Small Business Act (SBA) assessment supported Montenegro in improving SME policy making and enhancing the capacity of its policy makers in addressing related challenges
  • The World Bank Investment Readiness Program “Pioneers of the Balkans” provided mentoring to entrepreneurs to help them get access to external sources of funding.,
  • An IP Toolkit was distributed to participants of the Workshop held in Podgorica under the programme lead by EIB for support on intangible assets and intellectual property in the Western Balkans
  • The World Bank Investment Readiness Programme through its “PowerUp: Capacity Building for Early Stage Firsm in the Western Balkans” programme supported several companies in Montenegro
28.1m € Financing for SMEs
943 SMEs financed
Western Balkans WB EDIF map Serbia Croatia Kosovo* Montenegro Bosnia and Herzegovina North Macedonia Albania

News & Events

NEWS

WB EDIF Business Forum

The first WB EDIF Business Forum took place in Belgrade on 26 June 2018 as part of the 12th WB EDIF PAG meeting. The Forum was hosted by the Ministry of Economy of Serbia and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry and took place under the auspices of the European Commission with the support of the EIF.

The event gathered more than 150 participants from the entire region, including officials from the beneficiary economies, EC, EUDs, IFIs, Chambers, banks and finance providers as well as a number of SMEs. Several panels were organized to learn more about what WB EDIF has to offer, to hear stories from the companies benefitting under the facility and to discuss the main access to finance challenges.

The Forum was opened by the President of the Chamber of Commerce, Marko Cadez, State Secretary of Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Serbia, Branimir Stojanovic and Head of Cooperation at Delegation of the European Union to Serbia, Ingve Engstrom.

A business to finance event was organized in the afternoon, where the SMEs from the Western Balkans had the chance to meet the finance and advisory providers under the WB EDIF.

21 Mar
- 2016
NEWS

The WBEDIF Guarantee Facility II Call for Expression of Interest goes live

Following the good results of the first round of financing of the WBEDIF Guarantee Facility, and with the endorsement of the Platform Adivisory Group (PAG), the instrument has been replenished with additional European Union funding. On 18 March 2016 the corresponding Call for Expression of Interest went live and the EIF shall begin receiving applications and selecting Financial Intermediaries to allocate funding to. Read more

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