In Cambodia, Promoting Access to Finance

In effort to promote access to finance, IFC collaborated with Acleda Bank Public Limited Company to design a program that provided financing solutions to smallholder farmers, agricultural firms, and small and medium enterprises in the agricultural sector across the Mekong region.

Photo: World Bank

Challenge

Agriculture is a mainstay of the Cambodian economy, constituting about 22 percent of the country’s GDP. Though poverty rates continue to decline, there are significant discrepancies between urban and rural areas and an estimated 90 percent of Cambodia’s poor live in the countryside.

Solution

In effort to promote access to finance, IFC collaborated with Acleda Bank Public Limited Company, a long standing IFC partner, and its subsidiaries in Cambodia and Myanmar to design a program that provided financing solutions to smallholder farmers, agricultural firms, and small and medium enterprises in the agricultural sector across the Mekong region. The project improved lending and provided financial services for agricultural enterprises to increase employment, enhance export earnings and maintain food security.