Oschadbank invites local authorities to cooperate in supporting business under the "Development Territory" program

This was discussed at an open online meeting of participants of Oschad's regional business support programs "Development Territory".

About 100 participants, including representatives of Oschadbank, regional military administrations (RMAs) and territorial communities, discussed the interim results of MSME financing programs in the regions and further steps to strengthen cooperation between the bank and RMAs to expand the partnership.

Oschad has already initiated 10 such programs at the regional level – in Zakarpattia, Zaporizhzhia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Rivne, Sumy and Chernivtsi regions, with the Association of Amalgamated Territorial Communities, and five more at the municipal level.

Oschadbank's regional programs provide for partial compensation of the interest rate or partial payment for the equipment purchased by the regional authorities when Oschadbank lends to local businesses. Since 2023, a total of 172 entrepreneurs have benefited from the RMA compensation program and received loans from the bank for UAH 279 million. The amount of assistance from local authorities is UAH 5.7 million.

In her welcoming remarks, Rosa Tapanova, member of the Supervisory Board of Oshchadbank, called on regional representatives to launch similar programs in their regions and work together to develop and support the wartime economy. She assured that Oschad will continue to consider regional programs an important part of its overall strategy to support Ukrainian business.

"The challenges faced by local authorities in the economic sphere require the use of all available resources, including the capabilities of Oschadbank. In partnership with all stakeholders, we are trying to provide maximum support to entrepreneurs and offer the best financing conditions. We know what Ukrainian business needs here and now, and we focus our expertise, our largest network of branches, and our participation in various government and international programs on this," said Rosa Tapanova.

Natalia Butkova-Vitvitska, Member of the Management Board of Oschadbank responsible for micro, small and medium-sized businesses, presented financial instruments and projects to support entrepreneurs that have appeared in the last six months in the arsenal of Oschad. Among them:

• free business consultations from KPMG for MSME exporters as part of the My Export project;
• Ukraine's first own veteran program, Business 4.5.0, which, through a franchise scheme, enables veterans with no entrepreneurial experience to start their own business;
• the grant program "CREATE!", which provides individual grants to women entrepreneurs in the field of production in the amount of up to USD 15 thousand.
• Sowing without Mines program for farmers and many others.

"In wartime, every region of the country needs an individual approach. This is the task of the Development Territory program, which will be constantly expanded, becoming a driver of changes in entrepreneurship. To make lending accessible, we must join the efforts of all stakeholders. That is why Oschadbank will continue to create a hub of support for the domestic economy, use all the opportunities of international and government programs and look for new partners," emphasized Natalia Butkova-Vitvitska.

Another important issue discussed at the meeting was the extremely difficult situation in the energy sector, when Ukraine lost 8 GW of capacity due to recent shelling. In this regard, Oschadbank is ready to finance entrepreneurs through loan and grant programs to develop decentralized generation based on natural gas, renewable energy sources (RES) using modern mobile energy storage systems and smart grid. Local authorities should encourage entrepreneurs to use independent power generation facilities and provide support in facilitating their connection.