KULOB, April 7, 2009, Asia-Plus — Banks in Khatlon’s Kulob region have provided 1,306,480 somoni (TJS) in loans to farming units in four cotton-growing districts of the region for this year’s cotton sowing and harvesting campaign to this date, the head of the Kulob branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) Abdukarim Nematov said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“1,036,914 somoni of this amount are funds provided by branches of Agroinvestbonk in the region,” said Nematov. “Besides, 263,566 somoni have been provided by The First MicroFinance Bank of Tajikistan (FMFB-T) and another 6,000 somoni have been by provided by the microlending organization Tugarakiyon in the Vose district.”
In all, banks in the region have received cotton loan applications for 32,799,982 somoni, Nematov said.
In the meantime, the term of repayment of last year’s cotton loans expired on April 1. In 2008, the government loan of 27,471,796 somoni was given to cotton farmers in the Kulob region; the farmers have repaid only 12,069,555 somoni so far. “Besides, banks provided totaling 12,564,010 somoni of their own funds in loans to the Kulob cotton farmers last year, but the farmers repaid only 4,477,012 somoni,” Nematov said.
