About 75,000 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country are expected to benefit from funds amounting to K6.2 billion under a specialized structured blended finance vehicle which UN Malawi is implementing.

According to a press release from UN Malawi the United Nations Joint SDG Fund is running a 41 million US dollars program aimed at speeding up Sustainable Development Goals in four countries one of which is Malawi.

The funding will provide a new business financing vehicle in the country that will inspire strategic financing by among others providing business capital to businesses that drive achievement of SDGs thus helping reduce the poverty gap.

The statement reads in part: “This is a ground breaking initiative that will directly impact mobilization of additional resources for Malawi to support poverty reduction by increasing investments in agriculture, manufacturing and service supply chains.”

By providing access to finance for business the program will help de risk investments which play a critical role in the production chain.

The statement has posited that one of the targets of the program is to integrate 75,000 Small Scale producers as investees in the supply chains to increase productivity and in turn expand the country’s revenue base.

Malawi is among four countries that were selected from over 100 countries for the program the others are Fiji, Indonesia, and Uruguay.