“The SIBOLIVIA credit, which has an annual interest rate of 0.5 percent, is being expanded to encourage producers who cultivate oil-bearing species,” said the Minister of Productive Development and Plural Economy, Néstor Huanca, in reference to those who supply soy, oil palm, jatropha and macororó to the biodiesel plant, located in the department of Santa Cruz.
Huanca reported that the capital available for this new line of credit is 1,350 million bolivianos (nearly 193 million dollars), out of the 2 billion 393 million bolivianos (342 million dollars) that this state credit portfolio has.
The minister reported at a press conference that agricultural workers who are dedicated to producing these species will also access this credit facility.
The Biodiesel 1 Plant has a production capacity of 1,500 barrels per day and requires a large volume of raw material from the said oil-bearing species.
The SIBOLIVIA credit was created by decree 4424 on December 17th, 2020, and was established as one of the first economic measures of the government of Luis Arce to reactivate production after the Covid-19 pandemic and the economic disaster of the Jeanine Áñez’s government (2019-2020).
Huanca described that to date 12,232 disbursements have been made, of which 0.46% (56 disbursements) favored large companies; 1.81% (222) favored small and medium-sized businesses, and 97.7% favored micro and small businesses. He stated that the government will report in detail the conditions of the new credit line in the coming days.
jrr/llp/oda/jpm
