Project Description
This project - Joint Stock Commercial Bank Kyrgyzstan (AKB, company or the bank) is part of IFC's Central Asia Micro and Small Enterprise Facility (the facility), comprising individual credit lines to selected partner banks that will then be on-lent to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) through specialized micro and small business finance windows that will be created at the partner banks’ level for this purpose. Within the framework of the facility, IFC will, in close collaboration with EBRD, make available up to $45 million for lending (in the form of credit lines) to selected local banks for onlending to micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Kazakhstan, The Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan, and later Tajikistan.
AKB, the second largest bank in the Kyrgyz Republic, has been selected as a partner bank for the facility. It was established in 1991, and was one of the first commercial banks in the country. The objective of this project is to expand the frontier of finance by extending downward the range of market segments served by AKB. Thus, the IFC credit line will increase the availability of sustained credit to creditworthy MSEs, while at the same time building up the lending capacity and skill base of AKB.