The importance of financing SMEs, lending to the Agri sector and digital innovations
Interview with Mrs. Elira Abeshi, head of the SME Business Department at Raiffeisen Bank
What is Raiffeisen Bank's approach to Small and Medium Businesses?
Is this business category in your attention for lending?We at Raiffeisen Bank fully believe that Small and Medium businesses are the main pillar of the Albanian economy. These businesses play a key role not only in the path of development, innovation, free competition, but also in the employment opportunities and strengthening of social welfare that this sector offers, especially in rural areas.Considering Albania's strategic position, this sector has an immense potential for growth for its natural resources, workforce, not only at an early age, but also easily adaptable to market developments. We believe that the future of the Albanian economy will be determined by the dynamism and sustainability of SME businesses.We have enlarged attention in this business segment and have worked and invested to increase the range of products and services that suit SME businesses to help them grow. Through the financial instruments that we offer, we want to facilitate the efforts of small and medium-sized entrepreneurs to increase the capacities of their companies, facilitate access to the financial market for them, shorten the time of banking transactions, thus enabling you more time to invest in their business.
Since Raiffeisen Bank focuses on these businesses, have you taken concrete measures to support them, to support them with credit?
Our aim is to provide access to finance for all categories of SME businesses. In the last 3 years, Raiffeisen Bank Albania has increased the portfolio of loans granted to SME businesses by 125%, marking growth at rates much higher than the market.
Can you tell us what measures are taken to support SMEs?
I can mention several actions we have taken to support these ventures, starting with the investments made to ensure the most advanced technology on the market. Micro customers can now apply online for an unsecured Overdraft up to ALL 4 million and receive a reply in less than 5 minutes. We are the only bank in Albania that offers such a facilitating solution for this category of customers. This facility is offered for all businesses with the legal status of a “physical person” and not only to those that according to tax legislation prepare and report financial statements.The smallest categories currently can profit from an overdraft. This includes the micro businesses that do not have the obligation to prepare financial statements, but only complete the Annual Income Tax Declaration. Soon this service will also include requests for loans with installments, unsecured, for working capital, and we will continue to provide the service for other legal entities, such as shpk.
In addition to SMEs, is agriculture financing in your focus?
The agriculture sector as part of SME businesses, we support them with products tailored to their needs. Starting from June 2024, Raiffeisen Bank Albania has launched a range of new products for the Agro sector such as: lending with unsecured limits up to 3 million ALL, continuing with secured limits for amounts up to 12.5 million ALL with maximum term up to 10 years and the possibility of irregular repayment structures, according to the specifics of the business. Here we include all businesses that operate in Agriculture, starting from those with VAT number as farmers, a category with limited access to financing, up to the largest agro-industrial companies.
How are interest rates for Agriculture?
We offer very competitive interest rates in the market and in line with other SME business sectors, in order for the Agri Business sector to be included and treated with care, as it has a very important role in the Albanian economy despite the difficulties with it which farmers and other operators face in this field. The financial analysis is based on the specific characteristics of Agro-businesses and technological maps prepared by experts in the field.
What are the new initiatives that Raiffeisen Bank has taken to ease costs for its customers and are there new developments in terms of technology?
The voice of the customer is especially important to us. We have taken care to offer packages built for each business category, where each small and medium enterprise selects the one that suits them best.I want to highlight that the access to our digital platform Raiffeisen On (business) is rated as the best in the market by businesses. In this regard, during 2024, we revised the conditions of the digital package for the Micro segment. In this package, we offer competitive commissions in the market for every action performed on the Raiffeisen ON digital platform, with 0 platform usage commissions, 0 commissions for utility payments, taxes and fees, treasury payments and no commission to any third party that has an account at Raiffeisen Bank Albania. Already more than 70% of the payments of small and medium-sized businesses at Raiffeisen Bank are made on our digital platform and with this revision we have made their daily activities even easier, so we invite them to take advantage of this opportunity as much as possible.