BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 17
By Fidan Babayeva – Trend:
The situation in the Azerbaijani market of non-bank credit organizations (NBCOs) is somehow abnormal, because many of them have their specific approaches and areas of activity, Zaur Nurmammadov, Chief Operating Officer at FINCA Azerbaijan NBCO told Trend.
According to him, the coronavirus pandemic has negatively affected the global economy and complicated the activities of a number of enterprises across the world.
“This tendency also affected Azerbaijan. Due to the declared quarantine regime in the country, many representatives of the business and services sectors temporarily suspended their activities,” he said. “FINCA Azerbaijan is trying to build its work in accordance with the recommendations of the Central Bank and measures taken by the Operational Headquarters under the Cabinet of Ministers.”
"The activity of local credit organizations during the period of the pandemic spread had its positive and negative aspects. I would like to note that decrease in the number of NBCOs from 2015 through 2017 was followed by growth since 2018," he said.
As Nurmammadov also noted, FINCA Azerbaijan started increasing the number of its branches and customers since the late 2018, focusing on agricultural lending. The issuance of agricultural loans has been the main direction of the NBCO from the beginning of its activity in Azerbaijan in 1998.
"Coverage of rural areas in lending is a strong aspect of NBCA FINCA Azerbaijan in comparison with other financial organizations. At the moment, FINCA Azerbaijan is negotiating with the relevant authorities under the CLARA project and plans to take advantage of this program in the near future to accelerate the lending process. CLARA system, specially designed for the agricultural lending, will provide the NBCO with high-quality analysis of applications,” he added.
FINCA International has been operating in Azerbaijan since 1998. There are 16 branches of the organization in Baku and the country's districts. It is part of FINCA Impact Finance, a global network of 20 microfinance institutions and banks that render the innovative financial services to the low-income customers to help them expand their activity.
FINCA Azerbaijan, the country's leading non-bank credit organization, offers a variety of loan products to encourage small businesses to increase their revenues. The organization is mainly specialized in the agricultural lending.
(1 USD = 1.7 manat on June 17)
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