|
EBRD expands Tajik microlending by $25m
TajPromBank signs $ 4m deal at Annual Meeting
Less than three years after launching a Tajikistan Micro and Small Enterprise
Finance Facility (TMSEFF) – which helps Tajik commercial banks lend to the
smallest entrepreneurs -- the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
is more than quadrupling the size of the popular $7 million fund by injecting
a further $25 million.
Launched on 19 November 2003, the $7 million TMSEFF has been consistently in
such strong demand with Tajik micro and small enterprises (MSEs) that, by the
end of 2005, 9,174 sub-loans for more than $25 million had been disbursed. The
loans have enabled the smallest entrepreneurs – more than half of them women,
often traders buying goods around Central Asia or in China or Dubai for resale
at home – to expand operations. Although the maximum size of micro sub-loan to
date has been $30,000, the largest disbursed to date has been $25,000 and the
average has been $2,687. Repayment is unusually punctual, with only 0.15 per
cent of loans in arrears by end-2005.
Now, as Tajikistan’s business community grows, the EBRD and its partner banks
will use the new funds to gradually raise the upper limit for micro-loans to
$100,000, as growing businesses require larger loans for investment purposes.
Also, the programme has significantly expanded in the rural areas and is now
operating in 13 towns and secondary towns across 3 of the 4 regions. Most of
the facility’s business, however, will continue to be in microlending, which
stimulates job creation, poverty alleviation and grass-root economic
development, the EBRD’s Chikako Kuno, Director, Group for Small Business, said
at the signing during the Bank’s Annual Meeting in London. This is the largest
MSE initiative in Tajikistan, and as of September 2005 had created or helped
to maintain an estimated 19,000 new jobs. Current participants are
Tajiksodirot Bank, Eskhata, TajPromBank and AgroInvestBank and further
partners are being sought. A first loan under the expanded programme, for $4
million, was signed with TajPromBank at the EBRD Annual Meeting. “We are
delighted at this opportunity to broaden our cooperation with the EBRD,” said
Jamshed Ziyaev, TajPromBank’s chief executive officer, at the signing.
TMSEFF -- the fourth project of its kind in Central Asia, following J-KSBP in
Kazakhstan, KMSEF in Kyrgyzstan and J-USBP in Uzbekistan – has been
co-financed by the IFC and the Swiss SECO. Technical assistance has been
financed by Britain’s DFID, USAID, the European Union, Japan and the Early
Transition Country Multi-Donor Fund to support the partner banks in training
loan officers, setting up new MSE units, building up MSE loan portfolios,
streamlining lending procedures and developing necessary skills and capacity
to provide creditworthy MSEs with swift and adequate access to finance.
|
