Article, 20.11.2014
On 16 October 2014 the Swiss ambassador and the chairman of the board of ALTUM (the State Joint Stock Company Latvian Development Financial Institution, previously Hipotēku Banka) paid a celebratory visit to the POGA kindergarten – the recipient of their 1,000th microcredit. The Swiss-Latvian microcredit programme makes it easier for small businesses and self-employed people to get access to loans. The programme has clearly outstripped its initial aim of making 650 credits available for the creation of 900 jobs.
ALTUM is responsible for implementing the programme and in 2013 had already issued 800 microcredits for a total value of CHF 8.1 million. Since August 2013 a further 200 microcredits for a total value of around CHF 2.1 million have been issued using the money from loans already paid back to the bank.
On 16 October 2014, the 1,000th microcredit was already being celebrated. The recipient was the POGA kindergarten (poga is the Latvian word for button) in the capital, Riga. Participating in the event were the Swiss ambassador, the chairman of the board of ALTUM, the responsible director at the Ministry of Economics and the project managers. The POGA kindergarten was opened in 2009 and is run by Inese Buka, Kristine Apse and the latter's husband. To meet the needs of the children better and to cope with the growing number of children coming to the kindergarten, they decided to stop using external catering services and prepare the children's lunches themselves. The microcredit of EUR 10,000 enabled the owners to have a kitchen installed and create two extra jobs. The POGA kindergarten now employs around ten staff, mainly from social or health services. The 95 children that attend the kindergarten can now enjoy freshly prepared food from their own kitchen.
In the wake of the economic and financial crisis in 2010, unemployment in Latvia rose dramatically to almost 20%. The Swiss-Latvian microcredit programme was launched in September 2011 as part of the Swiss enlargement contribution, in an effort to counter this phenomenon. Self-employed people and microenterprises with fewer than nine employees can apply for microcredits up to a maximum of CHF 17,500. Projects costing CHF 8,750 and over must provide 10% of their own capital. The programme has both generated new jobs and enabled existing jobs to be maintained – around 2,500 to date. Since mid-2013 the programme has been running solely on funds derived from loans already paid back. It has therefore become a fully sustainable funding system for small to medium-sized enterprises.
