IFC Partners with Bank Arvand to Boost Small Business, Housing, and Energy Efficiency in Tajikistan

·         IFC’s financing to Bank Arvand will support micro-housing projects and micro entrepreneurs, including women.

·         The project will also support energy efficiency initiatives.

Dushanbe, Tajikistan, September 8, 2025— To support Tajikistan’s smaller businesses, strengthen support for women entrepreneurs, improve energy efficiency, and boost housing finance, IFC is providing a $5 million loan in local currency to the country’s Bank Arvand.

This long-term financing will allow Bank Arvand, an IFC partner since 2019, to ramp up its lending to entrepreneurs who often struggle to access financing, as well as to micro and small enterprises, including those owned by women and those located in rural areas. The loan will also help increase microloans to low-income families across rural Tajikistan, helping them to build new homes or renovate existing ones.

Bank Arvand is a well-established financial services provider in Tajikistan, with a focus on supporting underserved individuals and micro and smaller businesses, particularly in rural regions. The company serves more than 58,000 borrowers throughout the country.  

"Micro businesses and women entrepreneurs are a key part of Tajikistan's economy. This financing from IFC will make it possible for more of them to access credit, and help them to expand and create jobs,” said Shoira Sodiqova, CEO of Bank Arvand. “In addition, we aim to help address the current lack of access to affordable housing finance.”

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute around 60 percent of Tajikistan’s GDP but, together with micro enterprises, face a financing gap estimated at around 20 percent of GDP, or almost $3 billion. Informal micro businesses also represent the main source of income for many who lack access to affordable financial products and services.

Housing finance is also scarce for many low-income households, especially in rural areas.

"By partnering with Bank Arvand, IFC aims to unlock opportunities for thousands of individuals and small businesses, including women-owned enterprises, while strengthening resilience in Tajikistan’s banking and housing sectors,” said Wiebke Schloemer, IFC Director for Türkiye and Central Asia. “This collaboration will also advance energy-efficient initiatives, fostering innovation and driving sustainable economic growth."

IFC’s investment is supported by the International Development Agency Private Sector Window (IDA PSW) Blended Finance Facility, which will provide a pooled first loss guarantee for the investment, and the IDA PSW Local Currency Facility. It will be processed under IFC’s MSME Finance Base of the Pyramid (BOP) Platform that supports lending by financial institutions to help small businesses in emerging markets recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and inter-related struggles.

For more information about Bank Arvand, please visit: https://arvand.tj.

About the IDA Private Sector Window

The International Development Association’s Private Sector Window (IDA PSW) was launched in 2017 to catalyze private sector investment in the poorest and most fragile countries. Recognizing the key role of the private sector in creating jobs and promoting economic transformation, the window provides a source of co-investment funding and guarantees to de-risk private investments supported by the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA). The IDA PSW is an option when there is no commercial solution and the Bank Group’s other tools are insufficient. For more information, visit: http://ida.worldbank.org/psw