Top Azerbaijani officials attended the 3rdMicrofinance
Conference and discussed
building an inclusive financial sector in the country
Microfinance, providing financial services such as microcredit and microsavings, was introduced into Azerbaijan in the mid-1990s to alleviate poverty and create jobs. Since then, microfinance has become a necessary part of Azerbaijan’s economy. Unfortunately, further growth in the industry is hampered by a lack of capital and international awareness.
EF and its grantee, the Azerbaijan Microfinance Association (AMFA), with support from USAID, BP and UNDP, began benchmarking the Azerbaijani microfinance sector, with an eye toward providing greater access to funding and promoting increased transparency. Eight microfinance institutes and one bank qualified for the benchmarking study and registered at the Microfinance Information Exchange Market (a global web-based microfinance information platform).
Bringing together business leaders and government officials, AMFA organized Azerbaijan’s third Microfinance Conference. The project also organized training sessions on microfinance software, a working group on social performance management, and concluded with the presentation of the first ever benchmarking study report on Azerbaijan.
The project not only enabled improvement in institutional performance, but also raised the profile of Azerbaijan’s microfinance industry. Local experts believe this could lead to the government adopting a proper regulatory framework, which is seen as essential to encouraging investment and lending and, ultimately, growth in the microfinance industry.
For more information contact Suheyla Seyidova, Outreach Coordinator, EF - Azerbaijan.
