DUSHANBE, March 12, Asia-Plus — Closed joint-stock company (CJSC) Fononbonk, which got license from the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) at the beginning of this year, will go by focus on supporting development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, the Fononbonk chairman Samikhon Qurbonov said in an interview with Asia-Plus on Wednesday.
“We are opening our mobile transaction offices on the Dushanbe markets of Sakhovat and Korvon and other places of concentration of small and medium entrepreneurs,” said Qurbonov. “These offices will be engaged in attracting customers and providing consultations.”
The bank will mainly provide loans to entrepreneurs for starting and running their businesses.
Fononbonk intends to have opened its branches in Mouminobod, Isfara, Istaravshan, Khujand and Chkalovsk this year, bringing a total number of its branches across the country to 10.
“We are not going to compete with large banks, we have our own niche,” the Fononbonk head said, noting that the bank will provide loans to small businesses.
CJSC Fononbonk was established on the basis on CJSC Credit Organization Fanon. Registered with the Ministry of Justice in May 2007 as a bank, Fanon got banking license from Tajik central bank on January 4, 2008.
Fanonbonk’s regulative capital rose 3.5 million somonis (equivalent to $1 million) in two months to February 29, 2008, reaching more than 20 million somonis ($5.8 million). The bank’s authorized capital stock has amounted to 16,500,169 somonis ($5 million), and its loan portfolio has exceeded 38.9 million somonis ($11.3 million). Fononbonk’s assets have to date amounted to 57 million somonis ($16.5 million).
Its 47 shareholders include seven foreign citizens from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Russia.
