The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has summed up the Financial Intermediaries Capacity Building Technical Co-operation Program in Azerbaijan, Report informs.
The program, implemented from 2019 to 2022, was funded by the EBRD, the EU and Turkiye and aims to increase the resilience of the local financial system and stimulate lending to local micro, small and medium enterprises.
“A resilient financial system has the flexibility to respond most effectively to various crises and support stronger economic growth, including expanding access to finance for small companies. Today we are witnessing tangible results from this program, I want to congratulate our partners, local banks on this success and thank our long-standing donors, the EU and Turkiye, for their continued support,” Kamola Makhmudova, head of the EBRD Country Office in Azerbaijan, said at a program outcome event.
In turn, the head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan, Ambassador Peter Michalko, noted that the EU supports investments in Azerbaijan in the context of the Eastern Partnership economic and investment plan: “Earlier this year, Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi announced a target investment of 2 billion euros for Azerbaijan and we are working closely with IFIs and EU Member States to make this a reality. EU4Business is a key initiative in this regard and I am pleased that our cooperation with Azerbaijan is bearing fruit. The successful completion of this joint technical cooperation program is a testament to our close partnership with the government of Azerbaijan, with business representatives in the country.”
Four financial institutions took part in the implementation of the program: Bank Respublika, Unibank, TuranBank and MuganBank. The program had two key components: strengthening strategy and business planning, risk management, IT, compliance and NPL issues, and expanding access to micro, small and medium enterprises finance through the development of lending operations for individual banks, marketing strategies, etc.