Project Overview

Affordable finance is key to the operation and growth of every business. But micro-, small- and medium-sized agricultural enterprises in Ukraine are rarely the target audience for commercial banks, as their financing needs are too small in scale. Credit unions are often their financial partner of choice, providing loyal customer service through an individual, tailored approach, without the burdensome bureaucracy of a large bank. Yet, credit unions in Ukraine need support to strengthen their capacity and meet members’ needs, especially since the credit unions sector has lacked reform for more than 25 years.

The Credit for Agriculture Producers (CAP) Project in Ukraine began as a four-year project (2016-2020) funded by USAID and implemented by World Council for Credit Unions (WOCCU). USAID has since extended the project twice, most recently through September 2024.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the USAID/WOCCU CAP Project has been responsive to market needs by working with credit unions, their national associations and the market regulator to ensure that credit unions can remain open and continue to serve their communities by providing access to savings and agricultural loans to support local food security and other individual member needs.

The CAP Project's main goal is to improve the ability of Ukraine’s credit unions to provide farmers and their micro, small, and medium enterprises with access to agricultural credit by meeting four key objectives:

1. Improve the country’s outdated credit union laws and regulations to meet international and European Union (EU) best practices in cooperation with Ukrainian regulators and legislators, building a foundation for early recovery, long-term growth and increased access to finance to support local agricultural and economic growth.
2. Support the digital transformation of credit unions to expand outreach and better meet the needs of their members, and strengthen cybersecurity.
3. Provide additional liquidity to the credit union sector through a USAID-funded $1 million Liquidity Fund and other donor contributions to ensure sufficient resources for agricultural and rural micro- and small-business lending through credit unions.
4. Build the capacity of credit unions to lend to rural and agricultural micro and small businesses, including those led by women, and relocated and returnee populations, through adaptations of proven lending and marketing methodologies, and value chain finance.

As of December 2023, the CAP Project's partner credit unions extended 20,000 agricultural loans for a total of US $26 million, with over 4,000 of those loans disbursed in wartime.

Final Project Report

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FEATURED VIDEOS

Credit Unions in the Country

• 126 total credit unions
• 291,230 members
• US $34 million in assets

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