Prospects Of Microfinance Development In Uzbekistan: Issues And Solutions

Abstract

Rendering the microfinance services (in the form of microcredits, microloans, microleasing and others) to the poor households, micro- and small businesses is still an important tool to reduce poverty as well as create more income generation and employment opportunities in countries with the developing and/or transition economies as Uzbekistan. Due to efforts of the Uzbek Government and international donors for the last 15 years, the microfinance sector could become a separate financial segment and address above-mentioned needs in progressive manner. On the other hand, the sector has relatively small share in the composition of financial mediation and its further development requires also consideration of such socio-economic and administrative factors as urbanization process along with uneven development of microfinance sector, acceleration of workforce growth due to increasing youth, the need for government’s transition away from costly poverty control methods, etc. Based on the sector development analysis by concurrent reviewing of these factors the paper reveals the lack of diversified sources of resources for microfinance institutions (MFIs), stiffness of regulatory framework, the need for improving the sector infrastructure in terms of covering credit risks, building up sector’s capacity in covering operational risks. Beside quantitative indicators for prospective development of the sector the paper also discusses qualitative areas to be stressed on to fill the identified gaps.