TAIYUAN -- North China's Shanxi province has offered some 3.32 billion yuan (about $494 million) of microloans for poverty alleviation since the start of this year, according to local authorities.

Some 74,500 registered impoverished households have benefited from the microloans, said an official of the provincial poverty alleviation office.

China aims to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020. As a financial tool for targeted poverty alleviation, microloans have played an important role in helping impoverished households to escape poverty.

Statistics show that Shanxi offered microloans to nearly 450,000 impoverished households from 2015 to 2019, with the loan amount totaling 21.4 billion yuan.

Given the impact of COVID-19, the province has also extended the repayment period of such microloans by up to six months.