Nearly a quarter of the loans approved under the Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme have been for the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sector.

The latest figures published by the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) shows that the sector accounts for the highest amount of approved loans (24%).

Almost 1,200 loans for the sector have been approved with a total value of €63.2 million.

The SBCI report shows that 1,119 loans had been drawn down with a combined value of €58.2 million.

Across all sectors, 4,956 loans have been approved under the scheme, worth a total of over €465 million. 4,593 loans, worth €421 million, have been drawn down.

The wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles is the sector with the highest loan approval value at over €95 million relating to 803 approved loans.

The Ukraine Credit Guarantee Scheme provides viable small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and small mid-caps, including primary producers, impacted by economic challenges arising from the war in Ukraine with access to low-cost finance.

The scheme is overseen by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

Loans under the scheme range from €10,000 to €1 million, for terms of up to six years.

The scheme closed to new entrants on December 31, 2024. However, the SBCI said that loans can continue to be drawn for any customer who signed a loan agreement and had approval in place prior to this deadline

The finance is offered through a range of products, including term loans, working capital loans and overdrafts.

Over 3,000 loans for micro-enterprises had been drawn down by the end of February at a value of €183 million.

Dublin accounts for the highest number of loans drawn down (982), followed by Cork (505), Galway (279) and Tipperary (262).