NFES issues loans worth $200 million to entrepreneurs

/By AzerNews/

By Vusala Abbasova

Azerbaijan supports its local entrepreneurs by allocating concessional loans from the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under the country's Economic Development Ministry.

The Fund issued 210.8 million manats (over $200 million) to 5,690 entrepreneurs from the Ganja-Gazakh economic region for implementation of investment projects.

The forum with the participation of 70 entrepreneurs was held this week to grant concessional loans for investment projects that will help to create over 80 new jobs.

Following the forum, as many as 57 entrepreneurs received concessional loans amounting to 663,000 manats (over $631,000).

The forum participants familiarized with livestock farms of Goranboy region, which was created thanks to NFES financing.

The NFES provides entrepreneurs with loans via authorized banks and non-bank credit organizations.

The NFES was established in 1992 to fund investment projects in different regions of Azerbaijan in order to support national entrepreneurship.

The state budget will provide 100 million manats (over $95 million) to the NFES in 2015.

Additional funds will be sourced from the 130 million manats (over $123 million) worth of loans repaid earlier. Thus, the volume of funds accumulated in the NFES will reach 1.747 billion manats (over $1,664 billion), including state budget allocations totaling 931 million manats (over $887 million) and repaid loans totaling 816.3 million manats (over $777.7 million).