Turkey backs nearly half million businesses since 2017

By Bahattin Gonultas and Zeynep Akyil

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF) provided guarantees of 227.3 billion Turkish liras (some $60.6 billion) and credits of 255 billion liras (some $68 billion) to 467,776 businesses since the beginning of 2017, the fund’s general manager said.

"It is a success story that the system has reached so many businesses," Ismet Gergerli told Anadolu Agency.

He stressed the KGF was restructured at the end of 2016 to provide accessing finance to the real sector with relevant term and cost.

75 percent of all of guarantees and credits was used by SMEs, while the KGF made nearly 40 billion liras (some $10.7 billion) guarantees available for exporting companies, he said.

Gergerli stressed: "When we look at the sectors, 49.6 percent ($30.1 billion) of guarantees was used by commerce sector, 32.1 percent ($19.4 billion) manufacture, 12.4 percent ($7.5 billion) construction, 3.1 percent ($1.87 billion) agriculture, and 2.8 percent ($1.65 billion) tourism."

"There is no problem in returning. While non-performing loan rates ratio to normal loans is 2.9 percent normally, the ratio is 0.6 percent in KGF loans," he added.

He highlighted that the KGF also finance women and young entrepreneurs.

"No country in the world has such a successful KGF structure and technology and several countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Tunisia, and Jordan want technical support from us," he said.

Gergerli noted that the KGF provides relevant cost, long-term and low-interest rate for business loans and it reduces the number of walk-out check and bills.

The KGF system can answer loan requests within 24 hours with its strong database and developed technology, he underlined.

He said the KGF is operating in cooperation with several institutions such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank, the European Investment Fund.

The KGF -- founded in 1991 -- facilitates the access to financing of all enterprises to provides support to the growth and development of Turkey.