Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.29
By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan’s Executive Credit Agency non-banking credit organization (NBCO) has issued over 200,000 microloans from both external and internal resources to farmers and farming households, Chairman of the Agency’s Board Arif Aliyev told Trend.
According to him, through using the revolving (renewable) method of lending by re-lending to borrowers, the total amount of loans, issued to agricultural entities so far, exceeded 130 million manat ($76.4 million).
Aliyev noted that the agency has been operating since 2002, and for quite a large part of this period, the organization actively participated in the implementation of various concessional lending programs for farming households, which covered almost all districts of the country.
These projects include World Bank projects, as well as a joint project of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Islamic Development Bank.
“At present, for reasons beyond our control, we do not yet participate in such programs. Therefore, due to our limited financial resources, we are able to provide farmers with micro loans only at our own expense,” the NBCO chairman noted.
“At the same time, based on our long-year experience, the accumulated customer base and a well-developed extensive network of representative offices in all districts of the country, we are ready to cooperate with relevant structures and funds," he said.
"The COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the world financial markets. Unfortunately, it also affected the financial market of Azerbaijan, in particular, the lending sector. Therefore, we have introduced appropriate changes to the organization’s daily plan,” Aliyev noted.
“Given that most of our customers are residents of the districts and that the quarantine regime introduced in the country since March 24 limited the movement of many citizens, we tried to provide the greatest possible assistance to the agency customers,” he said. “Thus, at the end of March, we decided to postpone the loan payment date for all customers until the end of April”.
“This way, we prevented our customers from being included in the list of problem borrowers, which is formed automatically. Currently, we continue similar activities in accordance with the last decree of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan dated April 23, 2020," added Aliyev.
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