Azerpoct could provide microcredit

/By Azernews/

By Rashid Shirinov

The World Bank (WB) may issue $20 million for Azerpoct LLC to provide population with microcredit services.

The issue is expected to be considered during the next visit of WB mission to Baku, which will take place in mid-May, a source told Trend.

The WB offers a loan worth $20 million for 20 years for microcredit deployment in the country by Azerpoct. The volume of loans provided to population should not exceed $5.000. As the offered funds could be allocated under governmental guarantees, the cooperation issue should be resolved with the government of the country.

Azerpoct was established in 1999 by the Communications Ministry of Azerbaijan. The company started to provide financial services in April 2012 in accordance with the license of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan.

Today, nearly 1,000 post offices of the Azerbaijani postal operator are provided with the capabilities of offering all banking services (except for the issuance of loans and deposits) based on the license of the CBA.

The company became the national postal operator in 2004 and is widely spread throughout the country, having 4 affiliated branches. These are sorting and technical support services, express mail and special communication.

Azerbaijan has been a WB member since 1992. As of February 1, 2016, the Bank issued loans amounting to $3.785 billion to Azerbaijan. The funds were used to finance over 60 projects. By early 2016, Azerbaijan has used $2.764 billion or 73 percent of all loans drawn via WB. Besides the loans, WB delivered 45 grants totaling $41.586 million to Azerbaijan in 1995-2014.