Syria operated a state-backed interest-free household solar loan scheme from 2023, and it was suspended on 19 December 2024
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Claim ID
FINANCE-001
Exact or summary claim
Syria operated a state-backed interest-free household solar loan scheme from 2023, and it was suspended on 19 December 2024
Destination
Chapter 8
Status
QUALIFIED
Source
Al-Jumhuriya investigation of 14 March 2025 (SRC-366); Syrian Renewables reference page (SRC-367); Official Gazette issue 41 part 1 of 2021, general index (SRC-368)
Source type
Investigative report with named method and named sources, corroborated on institutional facts by a specialist platform
Published
2025-03-14
Accessed
2026-08-23
Measure and scope
Loans advanced through the Fund for Supporting the Use of Renewable Energies and Raising Energy Efficiency, established by Law No. 23 of 19 October 2021 and managed by the Ministry of Electricity, now the Ministry of Energy. Lending began through the Commercial Bank of Syria in February 2023 and through the Popular Credit Bank from the start of 2023. THE FIGURES ARE ATTRIBUTED STATEMENTS AND NOT AUDITED COUNTS: approximately 16,000 loans worth about 800 billion OLD Syrian pounds over eighteen months, on Fund employees to the investigation, which the report converts at an approximate 15,000 pounds to the dollar to about 53 million US dollars; 138 billion pounds of interest paid by the Fund to the banks, about 9.2 million dollars, which is what made the loans interest-free to the borrower. Bank-level statements are 5,600 loans and 150 billion pounds at the Commercial Bank of Syria to 28 May 2024 and 3,635 loans and 66 billion pounds at the Popular Credit Bank to April 2024
Known conflict
"[quotation withheld, 537 words; follow the citation]""[quotation withheld, 31 words; follow the citation]""[quotation withheld, 98 words; follow the citation]" || D-227 Arabic re-cut (Chapter 12 ar_v5), 24 September 2026: 'lent to salaried employees with two guarantors' is SUPERSEDED. Al-Jumhuriya of 14 March 2025 (SRC-366, the held Arabic at line 28) quotes an engineer: the loan [quotation withheld, 10 words; follow the citation], and even then «كان لا بد من تأمين كفيلين». Chapter 12 v28 line 95 says the scheme was designed around government employment. || D-227 Arabic re-cut diff review (audits/reports/d227_ar_recut_diff_review_2026-09-24.md), 24 September 2026 (M-2): the English Chapter 8 carried 'designed around salaried employment' at line 227 up to v56; v57 changed it to 'government employment', and v59, approved under D-228, carries that. The Arabic 08 ar_v5 line 227 still reads «صُمّمت حول الوظيفة المأجورة» and is re-cut by drift against v59.
Specialist
Energy project finance
Downstream
Chapters 8 and 10 and 12
Action
Print every figure as the statement of the named official or of Fund employees to the investigation, with the report and its date, and never as a count. Say old Syrian pounds every time. Do not convert to dollars except by quoting the report's own conversion and its stated approximate rate of 15,000 pounds, because the rate moved across the lending period and no source gives a dated rate per loan. THE SCALE COMPARISON IS THE POINT AND IT IS THIS BOOK'S OWN ARITHMETIC: about 16,000 loans against an installed base implied at between roughly 687,000 and 1,373,000 systems is on the order of one to two per cent, so the formal mechanism existed and did not finance the build-out. Never say Syrians had no formal financing mechanism || The one per cent electricity levy at Article 12(a)(1) is quoted from the instrument and is not this book's arithmetic. Never state the second or third fee as a single rate || ROUTING CORRECTED 31 August 2026 at O4 of the Part Four Gate 6 audit. Chapter 12 relies on this claim at its line 93, where it carries Law No. 23, the sixteen thousand loans and the suspension of 19 December 2024, and the row named neither Chapter 12 in Destination nor in Downstream. THE NARROWING IS UNCHANGED AND IS NOT WITHDRAWN: every figure is still printed as the statement of the named official or of Fund employees to the investigation, with the report and its date, and never as a count. The statements are the investigation's report of what the named officials and Fund employees said: the Commercial Bank figure was given in a televised interview of 28 May 2024, and both bank-level statements are in the investigation's English edition only (SRC-366). SUPERSEDED 23 September 2026 (audits/reports/d220_retest_register_followup_2026-09-23.md, retest B-4): the instruction above, 'Print every figure as the statement of the named official or of Fund employees to the investigation', is replaced by the sentence before this one: the statements are the investigation's report of what was said, not statements made to it.