Kuwait-based fund offers $100m loan to Jordan

Amman: The Jordanian central bank announced on Monday that it was working out an agreement with the Ministry of Planning and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development to earmark a loan of 30 million Kuwaiti dinars ($100 million; Dh365.4 million) for funding small and medium companies. Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) quoted the central bank as saying that the loan, offered by the Kuwait-based AFESD, would be re-lent to small finance companies and banks which would in turn re-loan it to very small, small and medium-sized companies. The World Bank had offered a loan worth $70 million and AFESD contributed with $50 million for funding 11,000 projects that secured more than 2,600 jobs. AFESD is a regional-Arab financial institution that finances development, economic and social ventures and programmes.