AKFED First Microfinance Bank Tajikistan

completed

The project is to provide a loan of $3.0 million to the First Micro Finance Bank of Tajikistan (FMFB-T or the Bank), an existing IFC client that has been providing credit and other financial services in rural and urban areas. The loan is expected to facilitate expansion of FMFB-T’s microfinance activities throughout Tajikistan. IFC would play an important developmental role by providing FMFB-T with additional longer term resources for on-lending to Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs), which have difficult access to long term funding.FMFB-T has been building on the experience of the Microfinance Programmes of Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development in Tajikistan. FMFB-T, headquartered in Dushanbe, was granted a banking license by the National Bank of Tajikistan in September 2003. The Bank currently has regional branches in four urban centres: Gharm (serving the Rasht Valley), Khorog (serving the Gorno Badakhshan region), Khujand (serving the Sugd region) and Kulyab (serving Khatlon region). These branches are supported by a far-reaching network of over thirty small district offices in surrounding communities and rural areas. As of February 28, 2008, FMFBT had a total loan portfolio of $20 million and a client base of over 16,900 people, 31% of whom are female. FMFB-T’s average loan size is about $1,100 with a repayment rate of over 99%. FMFB-T employs a staff of over 270 dedicated professionals.IFC has a $0.85 million equity investment in FMFB-T, representing 14.6% ownership stake. Since 2005, FMFB-T has participated in the IFC Central Asia Leasing Advisory Program funded by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs.