The Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and REDI Economic Development S.A. (the REDI Fund), Europe’s first microfinance investment vehicle dedicated to Roma entrepreneurship, have signed a new €5 million loan to help Roma-owned and Roma-employing micro and small enterprises access affordable credit, according to a press release issued by the CEB on 09 November 2026. The loan will benefit entrepreneurs in Albania, Kosovo, the Republic of Moldova, and Romania. It was signed by CEB Vice-Governor Tomáš Boček and REDI Fund Director Petrică Dulgheru at the CEB Headquarters in Paris. The agreement will be backed by a guarantee from the CEB’s Social Impact Account. It marks the second CEB loan to the REDI Fund.
Roma are Europe’s largest ethnic minority, with an estimated 10 to 12 million people across the continent. They remain twice as likely as other groups to live in poverty, while financial exclusion remains particularly acute. In Romania, Roma communities still face significant barriers to accessing financial services. Many small entrepreneurs are left to rely on informal lenders, often on highly unfavourable terms. The new facility seeks to address these challenges through targeted microfinance.
The loan is expected to unlock more than €8 million in microloans between 2026 and 2028, supporting over 1,000 businesses and helping create or maintain more than 2,000 jobs. The REDI Fund will on-lend the CEB resources to local microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the four target countries. These MFIs will then provide microloans to Roma entrepreneurs for productive assets, equipment, and working capital. At least 40% of the CEB loan will go to Roma-owned businesses, while the remainder will support micro and small enterprises with a direct link to Roma communities, including those employing Roma staff. The average microloan is expected to be around €7,000, typically financing small farms, family retail businesses, crafts, and services.
The REDI Fund aims to allocate at least 30% of sub-loans to women entrepreneurs, who face combined barriers related to gender and ethnicity. Finance is paired with tailored support from REDI Fund’s non-profit shareholder, the Roma Entrepreneurship Development Initiative (REDI NGO), which provides business development services, financial literacy training, and loan application support, and trains Roma loan officers within partner MFIs.
Tomáš Boček, Vice-Governor, CEB, said: “Financial inclusion is essential to social cohesion. Through our partnership with the REDI Fund, we can help Roma entrepreneurs access the finance they need to build and grow their businesses.” He added that “this second loan builds on a partnership that is already making a real difference.”
The first CEB loan, a €3 million programme approved in 2021, financed MFIs in North Macedonia and Romania. Together with REDI’s wider portfolio, it has supported around 460 borrowers to date, including 300 Roma entrepreneurs, with women-led businesses making up 60% of the portfolio.
Petrică Dulgheru, REDI Fund Director, said: “Roma entrepreneurs have never lacked ideas or the will to work, but too often lenders saw stereotypes instead of a business plan.” He noted that borrowers “repay like any other client” and that financing Roma businesses “is an investment that pays back in jobs, taxes and stronger local economies.”
Founded in Bucharest in 2016, REDI now works across Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Türkiye, and set up the REDI Fund in Luxembourg in 2019.