CBI: The reasons for project financing decline

INA – BAGHDAD 
 
Central Bank of Iraq - CBI determined the value of the new initiatives granted to banks, while revealing the reasons for the decline in project financing from specialized banks.
 
"The new initiatives for banks included allocating an additional trillion for the purpose of financing large, medium and small projects, to be granted through banks approved by CBI, in addition to allocating an amount of one trillion of 2021 for the purpose of financing renewable energy projects,” said Deputy Governor of CBI, Ammar Hamad Khalaf, to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
 
He added, "The most important challenges facing the initiative of specialized banks is the decrease in banks' financing of agricultural and industrial projects despite saving money," calling on "the Industrial Bank to search for projects, grant loans and reduce red lines,"
 
“There is a committee in the Cabinet General Secretariat headed by the Secretary-General to study loan applications and consider projects that request loans worth more than 20 billion dinars," he noted, adding "the committee has a positive role and provided many facilities for project owners to benefit from the initiative,"
 
He went on saying, "The decrease in project financing by specialized banks due to the slowdown and weakness of the industrial and agricultural banks as a result of the banks' internal mechanism in the grant process, for receiving and evaluating applications, conducting detection and converting them into payments," pointing out that, "these procedures are loops that hinder the grant process, in addition to the lack of staff that perform by evaluating the economic feasibility studies with regard to the industrial bank, and the modest capabilities and skills of the staff in the agricultural bank,”
 
"There are many requests received by specialized banks, but the provision of financing is weak despite the availability of sufficient allocations since 2016, especially the Industrial Bank, where the percentage of amounts granted to the total allocation does not exceed 5%, in addition to the difficulty of doing business in Iraq," he included.