​ Syria Trust for Development exerts intensive efforts to rehabilitate shops and workshops in traditional markets in Aleppo

Aleppo, (ST) – The Syria Trust for Development continues its intensive efforts to finance projects to rehabilitate and restore the old neighborhoods and markets of Aleppo as an advanced step on the road to recovery and prosperity.

The Trust launched a set of loans with lenient terms and procedures to meet the needs of merchants and craftsmen, according to the two agreements concluded between the Syria Trust and the National Bank for Microfinance and Al Baraka Bank Syria to achieve this goal.

According to the two agreements, the Trust launched its financing project, which is managed by the Aleppo local community center “Aleppo Manara”,  in terms of receiving loan requests to finance the rehabilitation of commercial and vocational projects within the old Aleppo markets, which included in its first phase three heritage markets, namely “Al-Ahmadiyya, Al-Habbal and Al-Niswan”, that includes 1,252 workshops and shops.

In a statement to SANA correspondent, Bashar Skif, the Director of the Trust’s Legal Response Program said that the two aforementioned agreements carry many advantages through a financing product with a reduced commission that can be repaid, either over a medium or long term, for the occupants of shops and workshops, whether they are owners or tenants, and owners of commercial and professional events in the old markets of Aleppo and those covered by the provisions of Legislative Decree No. 13 of 2022 regarding the old and heritage markets in the governorates of Aleppo, Homs and Deir Ezzor, which carries unprecedented exemptions and facilities.

According to Skif,, the Syria Trust supervises the formation of special committees for each market, communicates with the concerned authorities, to encourage the occupants of the shops and workshops to return to their work places, and bears the burdens of the interest of the loans that were granted to the occupants as a kind of financial contribution.

For his part, the Branch Manager of the National Bank for Microfinance in Aleppo Fadi Shukry said that the “operational product” agreement that was signed with the Syrian Trust for Development included the provision of credit facilities such as loans to the occupants of workshops and shops in the old markets of Aleppo “Al-Ahmadiyya, Al-Niswan and Al-Habbal”, to rehabilitate their shops through providing a loan of 30 million Syrian pounds, with a commission of 5 percent, and it includes all professions.

Al-Watania Bank has already launched several loans, according to Shukry, to contribute to supporting the national economy, including the “Marhaba Aleppo” loan with a ceiling of 30 million Syrian pounds and a repayment period of up to 8 years. It includes all specializations for productive loans such as blacksmithing and carpentry.

Raghda Sawas