 On the 19th of May EBRD and Bank Lviv signed in Kyiv a Policy Statement on allocation of a USD 10 million loan with a five year tenor to Bank Lviv supporting the MSE business in the framework of the Ukraine Micro Lending Programme. According to Mykola Voznyuk, the Chairman of the Board of Bank Lviv, the cooperation between the EBRD and a local bank in this field is very important for Lviv region, where, according to the statistics as of December 2007, over 111 thousand MSEs are operating. By the number of officially registered businesses Lviv region rates 5th (after Kyiv city, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions). The UMLP started operating in Lviv region in mid 1998 and since then the demand for credit in this region has been constantly growing. Only in 2007 the MSEs of Lviv region received over 10,000 loans totaling almost USD 95 million. The number of loans disbursed during first four months of 2008 has already exceeded 3,500 totaling over USD 40 million. Average monthly disbursement numbers of UMLP partner banks in Lviv region amount to 900 loans. Currently, nine partner banks provide financing to MSEs in the framework of the UMLP in Lviv region. The professional service and consultations to entrepreneurs in Lviv region are provided by 240 loan officers in 48 micro lending units. As of April 30, 2008 the current UMLP loan portfolio in Lviv region consists of 12,000 loans totaling almost USD 102 million.
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