The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral development institution, recently announced it is expanding its “Women in Business” programme to Tajikistan with an investment of USD 10 million. Tajikistan is the seventeenth country to be included in the programme, whose goals are to “improve financing and business advice for female entrepreneurs.” Women in Business includes mentoring arrangements and business education seminars as well as wholesale loans targeted at expanding women’s access to financial services. Tajikistan’s Bank Eskhata is the first to access the funding stream, borrowing USD 1 million for “on-lending to women-owned or -led businesses across the country.” Other retail institutions are “expected to join over the course of the next three years.”
Established in 1993, Bank Eskhata is a commercial bank that provides loans, savings and fund-transfer services. According to the US-based nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), the bank has total assets of USD 212 million and a gross loan portfolio of USD 129 million outstanding to 59,000 clients as of December 2016. Bank Eskhata also reports demand deposits of TJS 321 billion (USD 36.5 million) and accrued deposits of TJS 516 billion (USD 58.6 million).
EBRD was founded in 1991 and has 65 shareholding countries as of 2017. The development bank, which focuses on “the promotion of private and entrepreneurial initiative,” invested EUR 9.4 billion (USD 10.1 billion) in companies in 30 countries during 2016.
By Jacob O’Driscoll, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Information
EBRD launches Women in Business programme in Tajikistan
http://www.ebrd.com/news/2017/ebrd-launches-women-in-business-programme-in-tajikistan-.html
EBRD
http://www.ebrd.com/
Bank Eskhata
http://eskhata.com/
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