The Tunisian Solidarity Bank (BTS) intends to fund about a hundred communitarian companies in the interior regions and regional development zones by 2024. The Bank has, in this connection, taken steps to simplify procedures and reduce the time taken to obtain the relevant financing. A note to this end was sent to the bank's central services and branches in order to cut the time taken to process applications from companies operating in the economic sectors, notably agricultural services, processing industries, transport and services, according to a bank document. The BTS has already launched the financing of the first list of communitarian companies by approving in 2023, the financing of 15 companies for an investment cost of about TND 4 million, as part of the implementation of the communatrian company financing programme and in coordination with the Ministries of Finance, Social Affairs, Employment and Vocational Training. The BTS called on communitarian companies to meet the conditions for obtaining fin ancing and to register on the programme's economic platform, adding that applications will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis. The bank's various branches will be in charge of granting the loans, with a first instalment of TND 5,000 once a contract is signed with the relevant communitarian company and a report is drawn up on the equipment to be fitted and the suppliers paid. In the final phase, the BTS branches will focus on periodic monitoring of the funded companies in coordination with the various support structures, in addition to the need to inform the bank's central services of the situation of these companies and to propose solutions to resolve any problems that arise. The funding rate for communitarian companies will accelerate during 2024 thanks to the consolidation of the TND 20 million funding line created for this purpose, and the increase in demand for the formation of this kind of companies at local and regional levels in the various economic sectors, according to the bank. S ource: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse