Azerbaijan's post offices to provide banking services from mid 2008

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies said the banking-financial services will be available in post offices after preparation and network installation activities are complete.

Restructuring of post offices in Baku will be complete by late January.

In April and March, the Automated Corporate Information System will be procured and installed to coordinate connection among post points.

Besides, Intranet will be set up and connected to AzDATA.com network and the law on post be amended.

The organization of banking services in the post offices requires introduction of amendments in  the law "On Post offices". The due proposals of the Ministry of Communication and Informational Technologies are currently considered by the Cabinet of Ministers

After that the National Bank of Azerbaijan will grant a license to Azeri Post.
150 post offices in Baku, Sumgait and Absheron will provide banking services at the first phase and 1,200 [out of 1,600] post offices will offer banking and financial services by the end of 2008.

The cost of the project is $17.5, of which $12.5mln will be allocated by the World Bank and $5mln by the Government of Azerbaijan. The project will be complete by the end of 2008.

Azerbaijan has about 1,600 post points, of which about 1,400 are post offices and the rest are post agents.

/APA/