CAMAGUEY.- In the 10 months passed since the strong Hurricane Irma wreaked havoc in the central Cuban province of Camaguey, its victims have received close to 41 million pesos in low interest loans to repair their houses.

According to Helen Concepción de Jesús Mora, head of Banco Popular de Ahorro (BPA) personal banking department in Camaguey, they have granted 8,224 loans, 98 percent of all applications.

The specialist stated that for each case the interest rate applied by the Bank is a minimum of 2.5 percent and the client has a repayment term of up to 15 years.

When we have denied an application, it has mostly been because the applicant has previous debts or little capacity to pay, that is, his capacity to pay does not even cover the minimum amount that we can grant, he said.

However, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security accepts the request by granting subsidies to financially support the construction of the houses of those affected.

In the same way, the victims can buy their construction materials through another of the established forms of payment, which is the bonus.

To date, the municipalities of Esmeralda, Nuevitas and Sierra de Cubitas have presented the highest rates of applications, which correspond to the high levels of damage caused in these northern districts of the province by the impact of the hurricane.

The State Budget according to Resolution 645 of 2017 of the Ministry of Finance and Prices is the one that assumes the amount of the total price of the products and goods delivered to those who classify in this last modality.