local banks to increase their capital base and strengthen corporate governance, provides bank to bank loans, co-finances local projects with foreign and local banks, and provides Apex credit lines under sovereign guarantee. Some of these activities are aimed primarily at finding investments
and providing support to SMEs, but the majority of the programmes take a broader approach and have interrelated goals: funding SMEs, and creating the long-term capability of the local banking system to provide small firms with access to bank services.