Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.30
By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan’s Credit Implementing Agency non-banking credit organization (NBCO) issued microloans in the amount of nearly 500,000 manat ($294,100) at its own expense in 2019, Chairman of the Agency’s Board Arif Aliyev told Trend.
According to him, the NBCO plans to increase these volumes in 2020.
“Our priority is micro lending of farming households. At the same time, we possess vast experience in cooperation with Credit Unions. These small credit entities work directly with farmers on field, and due to flexibility and simplicity of their lending system, they are more acceptable and affordable," he said.
Aliyev also noted that since the beginning of the year there has been no decrease in demand for agricultural loans.
“This suggests that the market in this area continues to grow, and in the medium term, despite the difficulties that have now arisen, it will continue to develop. This is primarily due to the special attention of the country's leadership to the development of the economy’s non-oil sector, which is primarily agriculture," he said.
“As a result, large-scale reforms carried out by the government give us reason to believe that the growth in demand for agricultural products will continue, and, in particular, the demand for agricultural products of small and medium-sized households will increase,” he said.
Credit Implementing Agency (CIA) is a non-bank credit organization. The CIA was registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan on September 9, 2002 and was re-registered on October 25th, 2002.
In the period from 2002 to 2012, CIA served as the agent-executor of the project on development and lending of agriculture. This project was carried out in accordance with the Credit Agreement dated October 4, 1999 between Azerbaijan and the World Bank.
The project provided short-term loans for the development of farming and small businesses in small agricultural enterprises through credit unions, groups of borrowers and individual farms.
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