๐ Tender Overview
Scope :
The objective of the proposed sdp is to support sustainable, climate-resilient, and inclusive growth through access to finance for unbanked low-income households and microentrepreneurs. the $600 million inclusive finance sdp includes a pbl of $400 million, to be delivered in a programmatic approach in two subprograms, and a fil of $200 million in subprogram 1 to the government of uzbekistan. the fil entails a credit line facility of $200 million to be administered by the ministry of economy and finance (moef) to support commercial microfinance. the program will also benefit from anticipated government counterpart funding of $200 million, to be allocated from repayments under government lending programs and blended with the fil for commercial microfinancing, and a technical assistance (ta) grant of $1 million from the technical assistance special fund (tasf-7 for $700,000) and the financial sector development partnership special fund (fsdpsf for $300,000). the sdp is designed to help achieve sustainable and inclusive growth in the microfinance segment of the finance sector. it is aligned with five of the seven operational priorities (op1 and op7) of the asian development bank (adb) strategy 2030: addressing remaining poverty and reducing inequalities (op1); accelerating progress in gender equality (op2); tackling climate change, building climate and disaster resilience, and enhancing environmental sustainability (op3); promoting rural development and food security (op5); and strengthening governance and institutional capacity (op6). the sdp also aligns with adbs country partnership strategy, 2019-2023 for uzbekistan.
need for sector development program. the nascent state of the commercial microfinance segment in uzbekistan requires the combination of (i) a pbl to drive policy and legal reforms that can remove the underlying barriers, and (ii) a fil that provides a long-term funding source based on market principles. the fil serves to develop commercial microfinance through both state banksas they move away from government-directed and subsidized lendingand nonbank microfinance organizations (mfos), which do not have adequate access to affordable funding to grow their businesses. this sdp is about achieving a market-based microfinance system that reaches out to the unbanked and underserved segments of the population in a sustainable and inclusive way.
the pbl will help reform the microfinance segment by (i) preparing and implementing a new legal and regulatory framework for sustainable microfinance; (ii) creating a transformation window for the industry to move to a new category of microfinance bank (mfb) that can take deposits; (iii) establishing a new apex platform to provide access to wholesale funding while tackling the fundamental funding issues that microfinance providers face; (iv) enabling demand through new legal frameworks and guidelines for islamic, green, and digital microfinance; (v) removing the distortions to the market