BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 26. The Azerbaijan Business Development Fund allocated a total of 126.4 million manat ($74.6 million) in concessional loans for 2,371 projects expected to support the creation of around 1,800 new jobs from January through June 2025.
The data obtained by Trend from the Entrepreneurship Development Fund shows that 94.1 percent of the entrepreneurs who benefited from concessional loans in the reporting period operate in the regions, receiving 70 percent of the total loan volume.
Over this period, the fund’s concessional loan mechanism covered entrepreneurs across various sectors of the economy.
As many as 48.1 percent of the total loan volume was directed to industry (including agricultural processing), 44.3 percent to agriculture, 5.3 percent to services, and 2.3 percent to other areas.
Most of the entrepreneurs who received concessional loans were micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). In terms of project count, MSMEs accounted for 99.8 percent of loans issued in the first half of the year, and 90.4 percent by loan volume.
Projects led by women and young entrepreneurs were also prioritized. During the reporting period, 226 projects by women entrepreneurs received 8.4 million manat ($5 million), while 63 projects by young entrepreneurs were granted 3.7 million manat ($2.2 million) in concessional loans.
