Azerbaijan, Baku, 16 September / Trend corr. I.Khalilova /The problems of micro finance organizations in Azerbaijan will be touched upon at the 4th Azerbaijani micro finance conference on 16 September. Jala Hajiyeva, Executive Director of the Azerbaijani Micro Financing Association (AMFA), said that the limited access to foreign capital (cheaper and on long term conditions) and intensive training of staff is the key problems of micro finance organizations. Organizations which attract more funds need high qualified staff.
At present, micro finance organizations are operating on the ground of attracted funds. New established organizations face borrowing problems.
"Such problems arouse independently from the world crisis in the financial sector, as it did not affect the micro finance sector. This sector is more attractive for private investors. Therefore, there are two types of investors- social and commercial," said Hajiyeva.
Commercial investors have more severe attractive terms, but social investors do not issue long term loans. The main preference of social investors is refinancing, which promotes to develop portfolio for small micro finance organizations and new established commercial banks.
Some 14 out of 15 micro finance organizations are the members of AMFA. At present, AMFA has 24 members (ten banks). Banks' credit portfolio increased by 100% and exceeded $600mln as for 1 July 2008. Half of the credits are directed to finance agriculture and 25% -trade operations. The number of AMFA active clients exceeds 290,000.
Twenty-nine international organizations from 17 countries are expected to attend at the conference. The conference is held once in two years. This year Azerbaijan marks the 10th anniversary of micro financing in the country, as well as Finka and Norveg Credit celebrate the 10th anniversary of being members of the organization. At the conference the micro financing in Azerbaijan will be compared with this sector in Arab, European and other countries.
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