KULOB, February 13, 2010, Asia-Plus  -- Banks and microfinance organizations operating in Khatlon’s Kulob zone provided a total of 6,636,938 somoni in loans last month, which is some 2.2 million somoni more than in January 2009, Abdukarim Nematov, head of the branch of the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT) in Kulob, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

“In January 2010, banks gave priority to commercial organizations and small enterprises, because it is profitable in teems of the turnover of capital,” said Nematov, “Last month, 39.5 percent of loans went to funding commerce and business, while a share of loans provided to the agrarian sector was 25.9 percent of the overall amount of loans provided by local banks and the remaining 26.8 percent went to funding industrial, construction and other sectors.”

According to him, decrease in the share of loans provided to farming units could be explained by the fact that Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank), which is the leading lender to the agrarian sector in the area, is currently busy with selling shares in the Roghun HPP.