Azerbaijan Agricultural Finance Facility (AzAFF)
The overarching objective of the Azerbaijan Agricultural Finance Facility ("AzAFF” or the “Facility”) is to foster economic development in the agriculture sector, by increasing access to finance, including in local currency, to Azerbaijani farmers and agricultural MSMEs and facilitating the process of adjusting demand and supply through Technical Co-operation (TC) via local banks.
Investment focus: Azerbaijani farmers and agricultural MSMEs
The funds are provided to Azerbaijani farmers and agricultural micro (fewer than 10 employees), small (fewer than 50 employees) and medium (fewer than 500 employees) enterprises (MSMEs). The EBRD operates through local partner lending institutions, including commercial banks, microfinance banks, microcredit organisations and non-bank financial institutions such as leasing companies. They on-lend funds received from the EBRD to the ultimate target group of MSMEs.
Also, to achieve the objectives of AzAFF, the Azerbaijan Agricultural Loan Evaluation System (AzALES) was designed which allows efficient and systematic assessment of agricultural loan applications and thus can strengthen the agricultural lending capacity of Azerbaijani financial institutions. As a comprehensive risk assessment model and loan calculator, its scoring methodology determines the credit risk of farmers and rejects loan applications from non-profitable farmers. Through agricultural tech-cards integrated into the system (which need to be updated each year based on field interviews and market dynamics) and based on the qualitative and quantitative information provided, AzALES calculates the producer’s working capital needs and the most likely yield/income from various agricultural activities and suggests loan limits in line with the repayment capacity and real need of producers. It also provides recommendations on appropriate loan maturity. It features an agricultural database which has no equivalent in the country and can now benefit all stakeholders. The Agency for Agricultural Credit and Development (AACD), a government institution under the Ministry of Agriculture responsible for concessional credit programmes and international credit lines, serves a local centralised operator, offering the tool for use of the whole financial sector in the country.
GET MORE INFORMATION AND APPLY
The EBRD operates via a partner bank:
"Bank Respublika" Open Joint-Stock Company
21 Khagani Street
Baku AZ1095
Republic of Azerbaijan
Telephone: +99 412 598 0800
IMPLEMENTING PARTNER
