UK Export Finance: Small Businesses
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that the UK Export Finance expansion reaches small businesses.
Answered by Gareth Thomas
Recognising the impact of the support it offers, the government recently increased UK Export Finance’s maximum commitment limit to £80 billion, enabling it to expand its finance support for UK businesses of all sizes.
In 2023 to 2024, 88% of the businesses UKEF directly supported were SMEs. Its most popular product was the General Export Facility, which helped businesses to access around £576 million in working capital support.
UKEF has an ambition to support over 1,000 SMEs by 2029 and will continue to innovate and launch new products, working with a wider range of banks and non-bank financial institutions to tailor the financing support that the UK’s SME exporters need.
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