JEDCO to facilitate loan repayments to its development fund

AMMAN — The Jordan Enterprise Development Corporation (JEDCO) will be taking new measures to facilitate the repayment of loans given by its Governorates Development Fund.

Bashar Zoubi, CEO of JEDCO, said in a press release that these measures are done to extend the loans’ grace periods to one-and-a-half years instead of one year as well as to increase overall repayment periods to 10 years instead of seven years.

He explained that the decision to take these measures comes in light of the consequences of the coronavirus crisis which has hindered some companies’ ability to pay their usual loan installments, especially those located in the governorates.

JEDCO has also postponed the payment of installments from the beginning of the crisis, that is the period from last March to the end of June, so that they are rescheduled without this period being counted within the loan’s grace period.

The number of projects that were funded through the Governorate Development Fund amounts to 96 projects, at a value of JD49 million since 2011, while the number of non-completed projects reached 13 after they were unable to pay JD4 million, according to the statement.

The volume of financing provided by the fund represents 47 per cent of the total value of investments provided by JEDCO. The projects financed by the fund are estimated to generate 3211 job opportunities for Jordanians in various governorates of the Kingdom.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Zoubi said that JEDCO launched three programmes to support industrial companies, the first one being related to supporting small and medium industrial companies that manufacture medical supplies and equipment, public safety clothing and food products specialised in combating the novel coronavirus for export purposes.

As for the second programme, it is concerned with providing two services, one is helping and supporting local industrial companies through promotions and electronic sales in virtual markets while the other has to do with automating some of the activities and operations of companies to enable them to work remotely.

Zoubi pointed out that the third programme supports shipping expenses for local small- and medium-sized industrial enterprises to help them lessen the costs of shipping their products to unconventional markets.