Baku, Azerbaijan, May 7
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
Foreign investors are ready to issue manat loans to the microfinance organizations operating in Azerbaijan, Suleyman Kalyashev, chairman of the Board of the Azerbaijan Micro-Finance Association (AMFA), told Trend.
He added that two new investors intend to enter the country's microfinance market.
"The investors are interested in Azerbaijan’s microfinance market and are ready to issue loans in national currency by converting their dollar funds," he added. "In this regards, the representatives of these financial institutions want to meet with active market participants to discuss possible cooperation."
Kalyashev added that the Azerbaijani microfinance market is being restored although non-bank credit organizations still have shortage of manats.
"The new investors can improve the situation," he added.
"In general, investors and foreign partners who are currently cooperating with Azerbaijani microfinance organizations have no problems in the country because market participants always fulfill their obligations," he said. "An important factor is that there are no problematic non-bank credit organizations in the market. Therefore, investors show interest in cooperation with Azerbaijani microfinance organizations."
More than 140 non-banking credit organizations operate in Azerbaijan.
According to the Central Bank of Azerbaijan, the credit portfolio of the non-bank credit organizations amounted to 454.4 million manats in January-February 2017, which is by 23.7 percent less than in the same period of 2016.
Despite the overall decline in credit investments in the country's economy, the share of loans issued through the non-bank credit organizations remained unchanged at 2.9 percent of the total loan portfolio.
(1.7026 AZN = 1 USD on May 5)