Project Phasing 

The project is organised into four phases, including a setup phase, an initial operating phase, an expansion phase, and an outreach phase. The operating, expansion and outreach phases will operate mostly in parallel during the 3½ year project.

Phase I (Setup) finalised and formalised the structure of the loan programmes, including the SHS financing terms that the banks will offer to customers, the structure of the interest rate buy-down to be provided through UNEP, the process used to qualify vendors, and the awareness raising activities that will support lending activities in each bank. Phase II (Operating) is initiating the credit facilities across Canara and Syndicate banks, and initiating the related awareness raising activities needed to build a customer base for these loan programmes. Phase III (Expansion) will extend the credit facilities to the rural regional banks supported by Syndicate and Canara and will work with local organisations and Self-Help Groups to develop focused activities that channel SHS financing to poorer customers or small rural enterprises. Phase IV (Outreach) will focus on sharing lessons learned, disseminating the approach and outputs from the project.