ABA Conducts Access to Finance Business to Bank Roundtable in Badakhshan Province
Date: April 6-7, 2015
During April 6-7, 2015, Afghanistan Banks Association (ABA), with support from USAID's Financial Access for Investing in the Development of Afghanistan (FAIDA) project organized a two-day ABA-Access to Finance Business to Bank Roundtable event in Badakhshan province.
The roundtable targeted the enterprises functioning in Badakhshan Province of Afghanistan by facilitating access to finance through linking them with banks and MFIs in the area. The roundtable provided the enterprises with the opportunity to exchange viewpoints in identifying challenges and opportunities in improving their productivity and access to finance. In the two days event, representatives from directorates of economy and Woman affairs, representative from Chamber of commerce and Industries, DAB and private sectors (included traders, professions, producers and handicraft business), banks and microfinance organizations in total 160 people participated in the program.
Objectives:
• Improve access to finance for enterprises doing business in Badakhshan province through targeted discussions and meetings between relevant stakeholders.
• Link enterprises with the financial institutions.
In this event, all the banks operating in Badakhshan (Azizi Bank, Bakhtar bank, Maiwand Bank, New Kabul Bank and FMFB), Microfinance institutions (FINCA, OXUS) and DAB representatives attended the event. Banks and MFIs had roundtable discussions with the businessmen explaining to them loan procedures, rate of interest, credit appraisal and other issues. From ABA, Mr. Edrees Alimy ABA Research Associate participated the event to present ABA. Mr. Alimy delivered inclusive speech on ABA activities/achievements; member banks products and services, role of ABA – member banks in development of Afghanistan financial sector and importance of access to finance business to bank roundtables in improvement and expansion of businesses. In the event, the businessmen had suggestions that Banks should expand financing to Badakhshan province especially in terms of Islamic loan and to conduct comprehensive research on which kind of loan people need. The businessmen requested loans from the banks which were recorded by the banks officials for future process.
