KULOB, August 20, 2009, Asia-Plus — In 2008, the government gave a 27,482,288 somoni credit to cotton farmers in Khatlon’s Kulob zone and 62.19 percent of that has been repaid to this date, Abdukarim Nematov, the head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
According to him, due to president’s decree extending debt repayments till November 1, 2009 many local farming units have managed to tackle problems related to sale of cotton and repay off their debts to banks.
“At present, only Agroinvestbonk, which has provided loans mainly to large farming units in Hamadoni and Kulob districts, and TajPRomBank, which have provided 2 million somoni in loans to cotton farmers in Hamadoni, have problems with return of debts in the area,” Nematov said.
He added that local banks provided totaling 12,658,783 somoni of their own funds in loans to Kulob cotton farmers last year and cotton farmers have repaid 7,556,692 somoni so far.
In the meantime, banks have provided 21,981,608 somoni to Kulob farmers this year. This amount includes a 20,548,831 somoni credit given by the government.
