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Press Releases
Agriculture Rural Investment & Enterprise Strengthening
Commercial
Banks Step Up to Support SMEs in Rural Afghanistan:
Signing of
MOU with MISFA at Da Afghanistan Bank
PRESS
RELEASE (Sept. 11, 2007): Today the Governor of Da
Afghanistan Bank, Mr. Nourullah Delawari, hosted
the signing of Memoranda of Understanding between
Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA)
and commercial banks Bank Alfalah and Azizi Bank.
Cooperation between MISFA and partner banks seeks to
increase access to financial services among small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) in rural areas of
Afghanistan, and is supported by funding and technical
assistance from the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) through the Agriculture, Rural
Investment and Enterprise Strengthening (ARIES) program.
Signing on behalf of MISFA, its Managing Director, Amjad
Arbab, encouraged the participation of commercial banks to
support the growth of SMEs as a means to boost rural
economies through employment generation and increased
incomes. Country Manager, Muzzamal Z. Malik, represented
Bank Alfalah which will serve SMEs initially in Herat, and
soon thereafter in Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif. Azizi
Bank’s CEO, Deepak Shrivastava, signed the Memorandum to
support lending to SMEs through the bank’s branches in
Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif, Heart, Kunduz, Kandahar, and
Helmand with the intention to eventually expand the service
throughout its extensive branch network.
Recognized as a crucial sector of the economy, SMEs
represent a significant portion of productive activities,
job creation, and income generation, yet often lack
sufficient access to financial services from the formal
financial sector. DAB Governor, Mr. Nourullah Delawari, has
promoted the SME sector as an attractive investment
opportunity for commercial banks operating in Afghanistan.
Please contact the MISFA office for further information
about the SME program:
House No. 436, Lane 6, Street 13, Wazir Akbar Khan, Kabul,
Afghanistan,
Phone: (93): 752001626, E-mail:
info@misfa.org.af
General Information on MISFA can be found at
www.misfa.org.af |
