Ukraine’s state budget has received a $230 million loan from the Japanese government under the World Bank’s Emergency Project for Inclusive Support for the Recovery of Agriculture in Ukraine (ARISE), the Finance Ministry said on Friday evening.
“In the conditions of war, agriculture suffers significant losses, which, in turn, jeopardizes food security not only in Ukraine but also around the world. Raising funds under ARISE is an important contribution to providing access to financing for the agricultural business of Ukraine,” Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko said in a release.
It is specified that the funds were raised from the Trust Fund for the Promotion of the Necessary Expansion of Credit for Ukraine (ADVANCE Ukraine).
The Ministry of Finance recalled that the ARISE project aims to support farmers’ access to finance through concessional lending (compensation for costs under the 5-7-9 program) and improve small farms’ access to finance through grants.
The amount of project funding is currently $550 million, of which $500 million will be used to finance the state program “Affordable Loans 5-7-9%” in 2023-2024 with a focus on agricultural enterprises, and almost $50 million is provided for grants for small farmers.
As reported, on March 20, Ukraine received the first tranche of EUR4.5 billion from the EU under the Ukraine Facility program and $1.5 billion from Canada, while before that, all external revenues amounted to only $1.2 billion since the beginning of the year. In addition, on Friday night, the IMF Board of Directors approved the disbursement of the fourth tranche of the EFF Extended Fund Facility program to Ukraine, which should arrive in two to three days.
According to the National Bank, Ukraine may receive external financing worth $10 billion or even more from mid-March to the end of April, against the $37.3 billion required in the state budget for the entire year.
