UGEFA officially opened the first call for applications in October 2020 to kick start the admission of enterprises to the Programme.
In the first cycle, UGEFA received over 85 applications, 35 of which were qualified to be the first batch of enterprises supported by the programme. These enterprises work across different sectors, including waste management, sustainable transport and mobility, agro-processing, clean energy and others.
Despite the challenging times for most business during the Covid 19 Pandemic, joining the UGEFA Programme for these businesses was the best decision they made. The businesses were taken through the capacity building programme, where topics focused on Improving resilience of the SMEs, Investment readiness and business planning, Finance reporting, Financial planning, Investment planning topics and Loan applications and negotiations for SMEs.
These businesses have benefitted a lot from the Catalyser support of experienced and dedicated business experts that are passionate about the growth of the green SMEs. The topics covered have improved SMEs understanding of the marketing, financial management, value chain analysis, impact measurement and management and financial reporting. The enterprises have been able to create the necessary business documents ranging from the business plans, impact dashboards, investment proposals with the accompanying investment calculations and financial projections. The training was also crucial for businesses to reflect on their growth plans and supported them to refine their growth plans based on market insights and the capacity of the business.
There is evidence that the training was impactful, as the businesses have already started to see the impacts of the training.
The first batch of UGEFA-supported enterprises officially graduated in June and July, and is ready for financing! These have already started to engage in conversations with our UGEFA Partner banks and soon we will be celebrating their financing with them. It is important to note that UGEFA will support with loan repayment up to 33% of the loan obtained from our partner banks. Learn more about the UGEFA Partner banks in this article.
UGEFA has admitted additional 82 enterprises for the Catalyser programme. These enterprises will be ready for financing early in the first quarter of 2022.
Do you have a green business operating in the UGEFA target sectors of waste management, sustainable tourism, green manufacturing including agro-processing, sustainable transportation, and clean energy? Join the program and benefit from the support. The call for applications will be open until 30 November 2021. Apply now!
Register here to apply for the UGEFA Programme: https://ugefa.eu/register
