NASIRA is an innovative financial programs that supports entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa and countries neighboring Europe through risk-sharing facilities for local financial institutions.

Nasira offers a portfolio guarantee to stimulate lending to underserved segments. The goal is to allow local financial institutions to provide loans to groups they normally perceive as too risky. It targets portfolios consisting of loans to young, female, COVID-19 affected and migrant entrepreneurs (including refugees, returnees and internally displaced people). By so-called ‘risk-sharing’ NASIRA reduces the perceived and real risks of lending to vulnerable and underserved parts of the population. It enables and stimulates financing needed for microenterprises and SMEs who want to grow their business.

This explains how the NASIRA guarantee works for local banks:

NASIRA & Tamweelcom: Financing Syrian refugee entrepreneurs

Through NASIRA, FMO invested in Tamweelcom, Jordan’s second-largest Micro Finance Institution serving 90,000 clients including youth and women entrepreneurs. With FMO’s support, Tamweelcom now provides loans to Syrian refugees in possession of UNHCR identification and a Jordanian Ministry of Interior Card. This film was made by the European Commission's External Investment Plan: