The European Investment Bank (EIB) Group and Dominican lender Banco de Ahorro y Crédito ADOPEM have announced a €15 million financing package to support small businesses and fund work linked to sargassum seaweed in the Dominican Republic.

The package includes €10.5 million for entrepreneurs and small firms with fewer than 10 employees, and €4.5 million for activities connected to sargassum, a seaweed that has increasingly washed up on Caribbean beaches, the EIB reported on Wednesday.

At least half of the €15 million will support women entrepreneurs, the EIB Group said.

The funding is backed by an EU budgetary guarantee under the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus (EFSD+).

The €10.5 million portion is intended to support small enterprises in sectors including manufacturing, transport, agriculture, health and services, with a focus on businesses owned or run by women.

The €4.5 million sargassum allocation will support small businesses involved in removing sargassum from beaches, including collection, transport and safe storage.

Sargassum funding and technical support

Sargassum influxes have become a recurring environmental and economic challenge across the Caribbean, affecting coastal communities, tourism, fisheries and marine ecosystems, the EIB said.

It also announced €1.1 million in technical assistance to help ADOPEM strengthen lending to women and build its capacity to finance businesses linked to the sargassum “value chain” — the steps involved in collecting, handling and using the seaweed.

The technical assistance is financed by EU member states through the ACP Trust Fund and managed by EIB Advisory.

The €4.5 million sargassum financing and the €1.1 million technical assistance were announced on 2 October 2026 in Cancún, Mexico, on the sidelines of the 4th EU-Caribbean Global Gateway Conference on Sargassum.

The agreement for the remaining €10.5 million was signed on 4 November 2026 in Madrid during the Ibero-American Summit.

Both financing agreements remain subject to approval by the Superintendency of Banks of the Dominican Republic.