Azerbaijani bank named best in micro-business support

The Association of Micro-Finance of Azerbaijan (AMFA) pronounced Unibank the best in the micro-business support in the country for 2011.

Back in late December the Bank was nominated for two out of the three awards of AMFA and then the nominations were considered by the AMFA Awards Committee made up of the representatives of the reputable international finance institutions. Last Friday the 27th of January the AMFA Awards Committee gave Unibank 80 scores and pronounced it the best in the nomination the Micro-Business Supporting Organization in Azerbaijan - chosen from among 30 banks and non-bank credit institutions.

'This award is another sign that the micro-lending is one of our priorities,' commented Faig Zeynalov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Unibank OJSC.

According to Mr Zeynalov, by providing financial support to the micro-business community the Bank helps it graduate to the small and medium business level. Mr Zeynalov believes that the banks' support for micro-businesses should not be limited to lending.

'Because such borrowers cannot always keep tabs on their operations we are trying to help them form the simplified-form balance sheets and the profit and loss accounts... Not infrequently, our specialists combine with the customers to analyse the dynamics of their operations, even. This kind of work lets the customers not only measure with precision their financial performance but also see their business through the eyes of a banker. They can see all the positive and negative tendencies and, most importantly, make necessary adjustments including possibly in their loan applications,' Mr Zeynalov said.

The micro-loan portfolio of Unibank rose by 2.11 times and exceeded 13,350 mln manat in 2011. The micro-loans were the main credit instrument that the Bank was using in the provinces of the country. The number of businessmen that made use of the micro-finance instruments rose from 2500 to 5935 with two thirds of them representing such provinces as Ganja, Shamkir, Lenkoran, Sheki, Guba and Minghechavir during last year.


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