The Norwegian government plans to allocate NOK 250 million for Norfund’s investments in Ukraine as part of the Nansen Support Program, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko has said.
“These funds will help reduce risks for companies investing in Ukraine, including Norwegian ones. Private capital is the key to modernization. I am grateful to our partners for this decision,” she wrote on social network X (formerly Twitter) on Friday.
According to Svyrydenko, this decision also supports the efforts of the Ministry of Economy to implement a joint strategy to attract public and private investment of up to EUR40 billion in cooperation with international financial organizations and development agencies.
According to the Ministry’s website, the government also plans to continue this initiative in the coming years.
As the ministry clarified, Norfund provides equity investments, which involve higher risks than loans and guarantees offered by development agencies and multilateral banks. As an investment fund, Norfund also works to create jobs and support the green transition by investing in companies that promote sustainable development.
According to Norway’s Minister for International Development, Anne Beate Christiansen Twinereim, Norfund has experience in high-risk markets, so it will be an important tool for attracting private sector investment in recovery projects. In particular, it will also help to reduce the gap between Ukraine’s urgent recovery needs and the amount of available funding.
The Nansen Support Program for Ukraine is a Norwegian civilian and military support program worth NOK 75 billion for the period 2023-2027. The distribution between civilian and military support is determined annually according to Ukraine’s needs.
In 2023, about NOK 19.9 billion was distributed from the Nansen Support Program: 8.9 billion for civilian and humanitarian support, and 11 billion for military support.
