BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.8
By Fidan Babayeva – Trend:
The Azerbaijan Microfinance Association (AMFA) successfully completed projects for development of small-sized enterprises in the country’s regions in 2020, Board Chairman of AMFA Jalal Aliyev told Trend on Feb.8.
According to Aliyev, last year the association completed the implementation of two projects, continued the implementation of current projects and began to implement one new project.
"Within all the projects, holders of small-sized enterprises with low incomes, in which more than 150 people (women and men) were the beneficiaries, received financial assistance. They as micro-entrepreneurs were provided with capital to purchase equipment and raw materials for the development of their business," he said.
The chairman stressed that the projects were implemented in the Ganja-Gazakh, Shaki-Zagatala, Aran, Guba-Khachmaz regions and the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of the country.
"This year, we plan to increase financial support for small entrepreneurs in the regions, as well as increase the development of the country's microfinance market," added Aliyev.
The micro-financing was introduced in Azerbaijan in the mid-1990s as a strategy to meet the economic needs of up to one million internally displaced people and refugees who were forced to leave their houses during the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
A group of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) began offering micro-financing services to low-income residents and war-affected people to create opportunities for obtaining income and jobs in 1996.
They began to meet informally to share information about their work experience to remove the limitations that international NGOs face by issuing the loans with interest rates aimed at achieving sustainability.
The members of this informal working group decided to formally form the group into an association that will serve as the coordination microfinance center in Azerbaijan in December 2001.
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