DUSHANBE , April 14, Asia-Plus - On Friday April 14, the Micro and Small Enterprise Finance Unit officially opened at the branch of “AgroInvestBonk” in Qurghon Teppa, according to information from the “AgroInvestBonk” headquarters in Dushanbe .

Bahrom Sharipov, chief adviser to chairman of the “AgroInvestBonk” board for credit policy, has told Asia-Plus that now micro and small enterprise units are operating in the different regions of the country: Dushanbe has two such units and Kulob, Hissor, Istaravshan, Khujand, Vahdat and Qurghon Teppa – one each.  

According to him, all these units have been opened under Tajikistan Micro and Small Enterprise Finance Facility (TMSEF) program launched by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).  Last year already, EBRD provided US$2 million to AgroInvestBonk for these purposes and so far, our bank has assimilated US$1.8 million of this amount for providing loans to more than 820 entrepreneurs via the small enterprise finance units.” 

According to the AgroInvestBonk official, two such units are supposed to be opened in Konibodom and Tursunzoda in late July this year.   

We will recall that launched on 19 November 2003 , the $7 million TMSEF has been in such strong demand with Tajik small business that, by October 2005, 7,200 such loans for nearly $20 million had been disbursed. The loans enable the smallest entrepreneurs to expand operations.  Partners of the EBRD to TMSEF program are “AgroInvestBonk”, Bank “Eskhata”, Tajprombank and “Tojiksodirotbonk”.