The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Portugal’s Development Finance Corporation (Sofid) have signed an agreement to open a credit line of up to 12 million euros to benefit small and medium-sized Portuguese companies in Portuguese-speaking countries, the EIB said in a statement.

The statement noted that the credit line is intended to support Portuguese SMEs and their subsidiaries in ACP (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) countries and that they are “insufficiently served by the financial sector in the countries concerned.”

Sofid announced on 13 December 2018 that it would be negotiating with the EIB to open a 12 million-euro credit line to support SMEs in the Portuguese-Speaking African Countries (PALOP).

This announcement was made when the executive committee of Sofid presented the new strategic lines of action at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Lisbon, as well as the instruments to support investment.

Sofid is Portugal’s financial credit institution to support private investment in developing countries, in conjunction with European and multilateral development banks, providing companies with a set financial instruments to support their investment projects. (macauhub)