KULOB, June 10, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- By June 6, branches of banks and microlending organizations in Khatlon’s Kulob region have provided 13,066,651 somoni in loans to local cotton farmers, Abdukarim Nematov, the head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, 12,154,207 somoni of the provided amount are the government credit provided to farmers for this year’s cotton sowing and harvesting campaign through banks so far, while banks themselves are not in hurry to invest their own funds in the cotton sector.

Nematov noted that some 8 million somoni had been provided by Agroinvestbonk’s branches and some 3 million somoni had been provided by branches of Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank).

Last year, the government gave a 27,482,288 somoni credit to farming units in Kulob’s cotton-growing districts and only 52.64 percent of that has been repaid to this date.