The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union (EU) have agreed a €10 million senior unsecured loan for Amen Bank, one of Tunisia’s major private-sector lenders.

The deal marks the first loan issued in Tunisia under the EBRD’s Green Economy Financing Facility. The funding will allow Amen Bank to extend green finance to private-sector clients, including micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), while also promoting equal access to climate-related financing for both women and men. The initiative aims to accelerate Tunisia’s transition towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy by increasing the availability of finance for advanced green technologies and services.

The facility is supported by a technical cooperation package financed by the EBRD and the EU. This support will assist Amen Bank with project preparation, implementation, monitoring and verification, and includes training and capacity-building activities to strengthen equal access to climate finance within the bank’s operations.

Under the programme, the EU will also provide investment incentive grants once green projects are successfully verified, helping to encourage MSMEs to adopt new climate-friendly technologies.

The financing is further backed by the Currency Exchange Fund (TCX), an EU-supported mechanism that contributes to developing financial markets in emerging economies and offers foreign exchange hedging at reduced rates for Tunisian banks.

Amen Bank, a joint-stock company with share capital of 174,600,000 Tunisian dinars, is 66.44 per cent owned by the Amen Group, one of Tunisia’s most prominent private financial institutions. The bank ranked sixth nationally as of June 2025, holding an 8.5 per cent market share in outstanding deposits and loans.

Since beginning operations in Tunisia in 2012, the EBRD has invested €2.9 billion across 83 projects, with 66 per cent directed towards the private sector.