Gwangju Nam-gu Supports Small Business Owners with '4% Interest Rate' Hope Loans

Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City has signed a hope loan support agreement with six Saemaeul Geumgo branches to assist local small business owners facing difficulties in securing operating funds due to the base interest rate hike, and has begun full-scale support.

According to Nam-gu on the 1st, Kim Byeong-nae, the district mayor, and the six chairpersons of the Mujin, Gwangnam, Seoyang, Juwol, Wolsan, and Pureun Saemaeul Geumgo branches located in the district signed the "Small Business Hope Loan Support Project Business Agreement Ceremony" last month at the 7th-floor situation room of the district office.

The core of the agreement is that when applying for hope loan funds, the district office will cover about two-thirds of the annual interest rate burden borne by the borrower.

First, the six Saemaeul Geumgo branches in the district will provide policy funds worth 1 billion KRW for one year until the end of July next year, targeting small business owners.

The support amount per business is within 5 to 10 million KRW, and the average annual interest rate of the hope loan funds is about 6%.

However, the interest rate applied to individual small business owners may vary depending on their credit rating.

Nam-gu has decided to focus on reducing the economic burden on small business owners due to the loans.

To this end, despite difficult financial conditions, Nam-gu will invest district budget to support 4% of the 6% average annual interest cost as interest rate differential compensation.

A Nam-gu official stated, "Small business owners with low credit or exceeding limits who face financial difficulties will be able to reduce their burden in securing funds," adding, "We will strive to revitalize the local economy through business stabilization and morale boosting."

Meanwhile, the six Saemaeul Geumgo branches in the district donated 10 million KRW for heavy rain recovery costs last month to help local residents affected by the heavy rains.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.