The development bank that is established to providing financial services for the sustainable economic and social development of the UAE, Emirates Development Bank (EDB) announced the launch of a national Supply Chain Finance platform aimed to helps SMEs. The program works as a traditional buyer-centric supply chain finance with an anchor buyer. IFC World Bank helped EDB in conceptualizing and operationalizing this initiative. The RFP (Request for proposal) were invited from eligible platform providers in January 2020 and HPD Lendscape was awarded the contract to implement the platform. In the initial phase, EDB is expected to fund the pilot programs itself and over a period of time other banks in the UAE may be allowed to participate in Supply Chain Finance Programs. Even if a few large government related entities go live as anchor buyers on this program, it is expected to ease a great deal of working capital challenges for SMEs.
