Small and medium-sized processing companies will receive USD 2.5 million in support as part of an initiative implemented by the USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine. The grant program will provide about 25 grants ranging from USD 75,000 to USD 150,000. The grant program is being implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Economy. 

"The development of the domestic processing industry is one of the priority tasks for our Government. We invest in this area, in particular, through the government grant programme eRobota, because our goal is to produce and export more finished products with a higher share of added value. We are also grateful to our international partners for joining the Government's initiative to implement projects in Ukraine aimed at supporting and developing processing enterprises," said Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy.

The grants provided by USAID will support SMEs in activities that contribute to the production of innovative products, modernisation of production, reduction of manual labour combined with the creation of more highly skilled jobs, increased efficiency in the use of other resources, import substitution in the Ukrainian market and/or export of Ukrainian products to fill niches previously occupied by russian and belarusian products, and localisation of production of goods needed for reconstruction.

"Small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine are facing a huge number of challenges caused by the war. One of the areas of USAID's work is to ensure the sustainable development of SMEs and support the Government of Ukraine in implementing reforms that will ensure a competitive economy and a favourable environment for Ukraine's recovery. The new grant program is designed to help Ukrainian manufacturing SMEs create high value-added products, scale up production, innovate, and enter new markets by integrating into global value chains," said Natalia Petrova, USAID Project Manager. 

Applications for grants will be accepted from 3 July 2023 and will last until 15 December 2023 (inclusive) and will be processed in stages with the following deadlines: 15 August; 15 October; 15 December 2023.

All available grant opportunities from the USAID Competitive Economy Program can be found here.

Background

The USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine supports start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to increase their competitiveness in Ukraine's domestic and international markets, helps build a simplified and transparent business climate, and provides Ukrainian companies with opportunities to take advantage of international trade.