The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will lend $3 million to help fund projects throughout Azerbaijan that increase energy efficiency, according to a report on Wednesday.

Muganbank is the intermediary party, working with local entrepreneurs and households to provide energy-saving equipment and appliances.

The funding is part of the EBRD Caucasus Energy Efficiency Programme (CEEP), an initiative that finances local institutions to make improvements to lessen the consumption of energy in the industrial and residential sectors.

“The EBRD has been working with Muganbank since 2006 to support financing of the real sector of the economy." Neil McKain, the EBRD’s head of office in Baku, said. "This credit facility is a new product for Muganbank, as well as for the market in general and therefore will mark a new phase in our longstanding relationship."

EBRD's CEEP is supported by the European Union Neighborhood Investment Facility, the EBRD Shareholder Special Fund and the Austrian Ministry of Finance.