DUSHANBE, May 22, Asia-Plus – Less than three years after launching a Tajikistan Micro and Small Enterprise Finance Facility (TMSEFF) – which helps Tajik commercial banks lend to the smallest entrepreneurs — the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is more than quadrupling the size of the popular $7 million fund by injecting a further $25 million, press released issued by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) says.
Press release, in particular, says that launched on 19 November 2003, the $7 million TMSEFF has been consistently in such strong demand with Tajik micro and small enterprises (MSEs) that, by the end of 2005, 9,174 sub-loans for more than $25 million had been disbursed. The loans have enabled the smallest entrepreneurs – more than half of them women, often traders buying goods around
Central Asia
or in
China
or
Dubai
for resale at home – to expand operations. Although the maximum size of micro sub-loan to date has been $30,000, the largest disbursed to date has been $25,000 and the average has been $2,687. Repayment is unusually punctual, with only 0.15 per cent of loans in arrears by end-2005.
The source in the EBRD Dushanbe Office says that now, as
Tajikistan
’s business community grows, the EBRD and its partner banks will use the new funds to gradually raise the upper limit for micro-loans to $100,000, as growing businesses require larger loans for investment purposes. Also, the program has significantly expanded in the rural areas and is now operating in 13 towns and secondary towns across 3 of the 4 regions. This is the largest MSE initiative in
Tajikistan
, and as of September 2005 had created or helped to maintain an estimated 19,000 new jobs. Current participants are Tojiksodirotbonk, Eskhata, TajPromBank and AgroInvestBonk and further partners are being sought.
A first loan under the expanded program, for $4 million, was signed with TajPromBank at the EBRD Annual Meeting in
London
on May 21.
TMSEFF — the fourth project of its kind in
Central Asia
, following J-KSBP in
Kazakhstan
, KMSEF in
Kyrgyzstan
and J-USBP in
Uzbekistan
– has been co-financed by the IFC and the Swiss SECO. Technical assistance has been financed by Britain’s DFID, USAID, the European Union, Japan and the Early Transition Country Multi-Donor Fund to support the partner banks in training loan officers, setting up new MSE units, building up MSE loan portfolios, streamlining lending procedures and developing necessary skills and capacity to provide creditworthy MSEs with swift and adequate access to finance.
