Azerbaijan

German Sparkassenstiftung has been active in Azerbaijan since 1999 and has conducted multiple projects in close collaboration with local partners. The Azerbaijan team consists of a training expert, a financial sector analyst, the country and junior country representatives, a project assistant and a driver. The project office is centrally located at Winter Park Plaza in Baku.

In 1999 German Sparkassenstiftung helped establishing the Azerbaijan Bank Training Center (ABTC) within the framework of the EU TACIS programme. German Sparkassenstiftung has continuously supported local banks and micro finance institutions in organising and implementing their credit business for SME. Moreover, German Sparkassenstiftung assisted Bank Respublika in their restructuring in alignment with the business model of the German Savings Banks.

Since 2006, starting with KfW and ongoing with the Azerbaijan Ministry of Finance, German Sparkassenstiftung has been managing the German-Azerbaijani-Fund (GAF), a long-term loan, which is disbursed to MSMEs through local Azerbaijani banks.

From 2015 until 2021 German Sparkassenstiftung in Azerbaijan has been part of the regional project “Responsible Finance” in the South Caucasus and Ukraine, which comprised financial education, consumer protection and the creation and delivery of a range of responsible financial services, which was finances by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

In so doing, German Sparkassenstiftung has imparted know-how and expertise of the German Savings Banks, providing advisory services, conducting seminars, and inviting experts from the "Sparkassen" on assignments to Azerbaijan. German Sparkassenstiftung closely cooperates with its project partners, such as the Azerbaijan Banks Association (ABA), ABTC, the Central Bank of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the non-governmental organisation “Regional Development Public Union” or the Azerbaijan State University of Economics.

On 1^st of March 2021 German Sparkassenstiftung in Azerbaijan started implementing a new programme financed by BMZ, which aims at improving access to finance as well as business and risk management skills of MSMEs in rural areas. The first programme phase will last until the end of 2022.