KULOB, February 10, 2009, Asia-Plus — The First MicroFinanceBank of Tajikistan (FMFB-T) has provided 95,457 somoni in loan to one of farming units in Khatlon’s Vose district for this year’s cotton sowing and harvesting campaign.
According to FMFB-T’s branch in Kulob, the bank has received loan applications for a total amount of 413,044 somoni from 12 cotton-growing farms in Vose so far.
Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Abdukarim Nematov, head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), said that over the past several days, branches of five Tajik banks and two microloan lenders operating in Khatlon’s Kulob region have received loan applications for a total amount of 17,257,804 somoni from 368 farming units in four cotton-growing districts of the region. These 368 farms intend to plant cotton on an area of totaling 9,303 hectares this year.
The First MicroFinanceBank of Tajikistan was established in 2003. The board members include representatives of its shareholders – The Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance, the Aga Khan Foundation Tajikistan, the International Finance Cooperation (IFC) and the Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau (KfW).
In addition to its head office in Dushanbe, the bank currently has four regional branches in Khorog, Gharm, Khujand and Kulob and more than 30 district offices in rural areas. The Bank has a national mandate to provide a comprehensive range of financial services to the poor throughout the country.
