Banking, Central Asia, Featured Work, Multilaterals and Supranationals - Friday, December 2, 2011 8:59 - 1 Comment

Microfinance – up close and personal

Euromoney, December 2011

Microfinance has its problems, but it can drive the economies of developing nations. So what if it wasn’t there? To find out, Chris Wright heads to the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to meet its lenders and clients

In a village in rural Tajikistan, Mastura Asoeva is flicking through her accounts. Perched on a stack of wooden boards in front of piles of stick bundles and clay bricks, the mother-of-four doesn’t look an obvious CEO, but business is good: her basket-weaving operation is growing and, for a fee, she trains women in other Tajik villages in the same skill.

Some 2,400km by road to the north-east in Maevka village, Kyrgyzstan, Taalaibek Gaipberdiev is surrounded by traditional, local carnival costumes that his company makes for lease to the growing population of the nearby capital Bishkek. It wasn’t how he planned to build his business. “Initially, I just wanted a photo studio where children could take pictures in carnival outfits, such as fairy-tale pictures, but at the end of the year our customers asked to lease out the costumes for New Year parties,” he says. “I said no. But they wouldn’t leave my office.” Now he has 3,000 costumes and employs 40 people in an outlet and workshop.

Meet the next generation of banking clients.

To see this article as it ran in Euromoney, click here: CW Microfinance p2

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