Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Finance in Uzbekistan: Challenges and Opportunities

Microcredit organizations. Microcredit organizations are regulated mainly by two laws, 
such as the Law “On Micro-finance” and the Law on “On Micro-credit Organizations”, 
which were adopted in September 2006. The framework law “On microfinance”
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provides key definitions and outlines basic rules for the provision of microfinance 
services. In particular, it allows the provision of microfinance services 
to both banks and non-banks: the latter include microcredit organizations (MCOs)
and pawnshops.
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Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan No. UP-3750 dated 5 May 2006 “On Establishment 
of the Joint-Stock Commercial Bank ‘Mikrokreditbank’.”
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Resolution of the President the Republic of Uzbekistan No. PP-3694 dated 4 May 2018 “On Measures for 
Improving the Financial Condition and Further Improvement of the Activity of the Joint-Stock Commercial 
People’s Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Joint-Stock Commercial Bank ‘Mikrokreditbank’.” 
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Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Microfinance” No. ZRU-50 dated 25 August 2006.
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The law also mentions “other credit organizations”, but currently there are no entities with this status
in Uzbekistan.

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ADBI Working Paper 997 
D. Tadjibaeva 
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Table 6: Mikrokreditbank’s Programs 
Program 
Target Group 
Size (min. wages) 
Term 
Other 
Mikrokreditbank: 
Basic program 
SME 
Private business 
Farmers 
Individuals 
Family business 
Home-based business 
500 for microcredit 
2,000 for microleasing 
24 months 
Interest rates 
based on bank 
policy 
Mikrokreditbank: 
New jobs creation 
and low income 
Unregistered 
entrepreneurs 
Micro-firms 
Dehkans 
Low income 
School graduates 
50 for unregistered 
100 for microfirms, 
low-income, 
graduates 
500 for expansion 
15 for group loans (to 
each member) 
24 months for all 
except group 
loans 
1 year for group 
loans
– 
Mikrokreditbank 
own offering 1: 
Concessional 
MSME 
MSME start-up 
200 
18 months 
Interest rate 
3% 
Mikrokreditbank 
own offering 2: 
MSME for 
expansion and 
working capital 
MSME 
500 
18 months 
Interest rate 
50% of CBU 
refinancing 
rate 
Mikrokreditbank 
own offering 3: 
Microleasing 
MSME 
2,000 
3 years 
Interest rate 
5% 
In 2017, there were 76 non-banking financial institutions including 30 micro credit 
organizations (MCOs) and 46 pawnshops operating in the country.
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Microcredit 
organizations cannot take deposits, and they are allowed to offer three microfinance 
products namely, microcredit, microloan and microleasing. The differences between 
these types of services relate to the size of the products and their purpose, as well
as microfinance product recipients and a few other conditions; they are summarized
in Table 7.
A recent World Bank study of opportunities for enterprise competitiveness in Uzbekistan 
suggests that smaller enterprises and unbanked markets are finding value from 
microcredit institution services.