A financial deal for a $100 million loan for the development of the provinces devastated by the earthquakes on February 6 has been signed by the United States International Development financial Corporation (DFC), the U.S. government’s development finance institution, and a Turkish bank.
Ekerbank of Turkey would additionally contribute $33 million from its own funds to bring the total to $133 million.
The seven-year loan will mostly be utilised to aid in the development of the area hit by the quakes on February 6 as well as to finance small and medium-sized businesses run by women.
Over the following seven years, ekerbank hopes to help over 350,000 businesses and 1.5 million new and existing job possibilities with the DFC loan.
The loan will be increased in order to broaden financial inclusion and boost social impact, in keeping with the joint goals of the DFC and ekerbank.
“This loan is a huge step towards helping the communities in Türkiye that were devastated by the earthquake. In a press conference on August 18 in Istanbul, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Jeffry Flake remarked, “We are honoured to help our Turkish neighbours recover and rebuild.
Following the earthquakes on February 6, the U.S. government provided $235 million in assistance and over $110 million in business donations to the earthquake zone.
In the meantime, a deal for 130.6 million Turkish Liras ($4.8 million) was inked between Japan and the UNDP for the recycling of earthquake debris in the southern Turkish provinces of Hatay and Kahramanmaraş, which were hardest hit by the fatal twin quakes.
The project, which will be put into action in a year, will pinpoint the provinces’ temporary storage locations for hazardous trash like asbestos and other debris.
Four mobile crushers will be made available to the earthquake zones, and two facilities will be built to recycle waste from rubble.