(Ecofin Agency) - Tunisia-based microfinance company Enda Tamweel, which owns about 80% of the country’s microfinance sector market share, has signed a loan guarantee agreement with the local subsidiary of US bank Citibank for an amount of TND30 million ($10.4 million).

The sum will support nearly 17,000 microenterprises, traditionally excluded from the commercial banking financial circuit and whose activities are focused on small-scale agriculture, livestock and the environment. Enda Tamweel offers microcredits to small businesses ranging from $200 to $6,500.

The microfinance company founded in 2015 by the Tunisian NGO Enda Inter-Arab serves about 370,000 micro-entrepreneurs nationwide. However, and as Essma Ben Hamida (pictured), co-founder of Enda Tamweel, points out, nearly one million Tunisian entrepreneurs do not have access to traditional financing mechanisms offered by commercial banks.

The loan guarantee agreement is part of the Global Inclusive Finance Framework, which is an initiative of the American group Citibank and the American Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). This initiative is dedicated to the financing of companies and microfinance institutions established in emerging markets.

Chamberline Moko