MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EBRD Loans $59m to Qatar National Bank (QNB) Tunisia for Small, Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Financing

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral institution, recently loaned EUR 50 million (USD 59 million) to Qatar National Bank (QNB) Tunisia, a subsidiary of the Qatar-based QNB Group. QNB Tunisia will use the proceeds from the loan to on-lend to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Tunisia. This is the first transaction between EBRD and QNB Tunisia.

Established in 1982, QNB Tunisia provides deposit, leasing, investment and lending services to individual and business customers via 40 branches as of 2018. Financial data on QNB Tunisia are unavailable.

Established in 1964, QNB Group is a commercial banking entity that is half-owned by the Qatari government and half-owned by members of the public. Its 15 subsidiaries offer asset management, commercial banking and retail banking in 31 countries in Africa, East Asia and the Middle East. As of December 2017, the group reported total assets of QAR 811 billion (USD 222 billion), outstanding loans of QAR 584 billion (USD 159 billion) and customer deposits of QAR 586 billion (USD 160 billion). QNB Group operates approximately 1,200 branches and serves 22 million customers as of 2017.

EBRD was founded in 1991 and has 66 shareholding countries – plus the EU and the European Investment Bank – as of 2018. With a focus on “the promotion of private and entrepreneurial initiative,” it invested EUR 9.7 billion (USD 11.2 billion) during 2017 in companies in 36 countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. Beginning in 2012, when EBRD began operating in Tunisia, through 2018, the bank invested EUR 750 billion (USD 880 million) in 33 projects in the country.

By Nicholas Galimberti, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

EBRD press release
https://www.ebrd.com/news/2018/ebrd-supports-tunisian-small-businesses-in-first-cooperation-with-qnb-tunisia.html

EBRD QNB Tunisia project consideration
https://www.ebrd.com/work-with-us/projects/psd/fif-qnb-tunisia-sme-loan.html

QNB Tunisia website
https://qnb.com.tn/

QNB Group background
https://www.qnb.com/cs/Satellite/QNBQatar/en_QA/enAboutQNB

QNB Group annual report
https://www.qnb.com/cs/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheader=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1355588983791&ssbinary=true

MicroCapital Brief; July 9, 2018; EBRD, UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Training Farmer Cooperatives in Serbia
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-ebrd-uns-food-and-agriculture-organization-fao-training-farmer-cooperatives-in-serbia/

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