IMON International is the leading MFI in Tajikistan in terms of loan portfolio, client base and coverage.

About IMON International

IMON International began in 1999 as a program of the National Association of Business Women of Tajikistan, in partnership with Mercy Corps, under the name “Microloans in Tajikistan.” This initiative brought international microfinance techniques to Tajikistan for the first time. Today IMON is the country’s largest MFI, and the bank has begun expanding into the SME space in recent years. IMON has more than 109,000 customers throughout 28 regions of Tajikistan, who it provides with a range of services including lending, leasing, consulting and advisory.

The Program

With its origins as an initiative of the National Association of Business Women, serving women entrepreneurs is in IMON’s DNA. The bank provides a range of non-financial services to women entrepreneurs, encompassing access to knowledge, information, networking and confidence building. IMON works with the National Association of Business Women to provide business courses and business planning, and the bank has also developed women-focused content with the ILO covering business education, leadership development, confidence and communication. The bank also supports a women entrepreneur network and awards for successful Tajikistan women business owners. In 2015, along with Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, entered into a parallel lending arrangement to provide IMON US$16.5 million to boost lending to MSMEs in the country’s remote and rural areas, with a special focus on women entrepreneurs.

 

WOMEN AT
IMON International

Approximately 38 percent of 
the bank’s 109,000 customers 
are women.



23 percent of clients in IMON
International’s SME portfolio are
women entrepreneurs



34 percent of the bank’s 
employees are women.

IMON

 

The Opportunity in Tajikistan

45%

of Tajikistan women participated in the labor force in 2017, according to the World Bank.

42%

of women in the country had an account at a formal financial institution in 2017, Findex research indicated.

9%

of women saved at a bank in 2017, according to Findex, but 29% of women reported engaging in savings activity that year.

13%

of women in Tajikistan borrowed money from a formal financial institution in 2017, yet 30% of women took out a loan of some sort that year, Findex found.

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