World Bank grants $5.19 mn for energy financing to MSMEs

World Bank will provide an additional USD 5.19 million grant to MSME industries in the country to help them adopt efficient energy means.
Grant will be provided through World Bank's International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) arm.
An agreement for Global Environment Facility (GEF) Grant of USD 5.19 million for 'Additional Financing for Financing Energy Efficiency at MSMEs Project- Programmatic Framework for Energy Efficiency' was signed here today, said an official release.
IBRD, acting as an implementing agency of the Global Environment Facility, provides loans and other assistance primarily to middle income countries.
The parent project 'India: Financing Energy Efficiency at MSME Project (FEEMP)' became effective on September 29, 2010 with an original grant aid of USD 11.3 million.

"The Development Objective of the project was to increase demand for energy efficiency investments in select micro, small and medium enterprise clusters and to build their capacity to access commercial finance," said the release.
The proposed Additional Financing (AF) would be used to help further scale up the initiatives taken up under the parent project, Finance Ministry said.
It will also contribute to bridge the current gap in understanding between different stakeholders, mainly energy professionals/technology suppliers, entrepreneurs, banks and financial institutions.