Active guarantee scheme still available

KUALA LUMPUR: Syarikat Jaminan Pembiayaan Perniagaan Bhd (SJPP), a company wholly-owned by the Minister of Finance Inc, has RM20.5bil active guarantee scheme allocation remaining to support the growth of small and medium enterprises (SME) in the country.

Principal officer Chen Yin Heng said that last year, SJPP approved RM5.8bil financing to SMEs under its programmes, of which RM4bil were guaranteed by the government – an improvement from RM3.7bil financing with RM2.6bil guaranteed by the government in 2018.

“Since our inception in 2009, SJPP has enabled the participating financial institutions to make available RM33.5bil of financing to the sector, benefiting 19,843 SMEs.

“To date, we have RM20.5bil remaining, which is sufficient to provide opportunities for SMEs to grow from this guarantee scheme, ” he said after the launch of Budget 2020 – Government Guarantee Schemes for SMEs by SJPP.

Chen said non-performing loan currently stood at 3%, which translated into a marginal cost to the government.

At the event, SJPP launched two new guarantee schemes – the Working Capital Guarantee Scheme for exports worth RM1bil to encourage SMEs to expand abroad, and the RM500mil Working Capital Guarantee Scheme for Women.

The guarantee coverage for these new schemes has been set at 80%, with a guarantee fee of 0.75% per annum. — Bernama

Source: TheStar