President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced new initiatives on 16 December to expand support for small businesses in Uzbekistan.
Over the past six years, 750,000 citizens participating in the family entrepreneurship program repaid their loans on time and established profitable businesses. Among them, 58,000 went on to create new companies.
Under president’s decree, unsecured microloans of up to 100 million soums ($7,770) are offered to small business entities operating for at least one year and maintaining a positive credit history. However, individuals who previously participated in family entrepreneurship programs and repaid their loans on time are ineligible for these loans, as they are classified as private individuals.
President Mirziyoyev stressed the need for banks to support these proven clients, enabling them to scale up to small and medium-sized enterprises. To this end, the “Small business support” program will offer unconditional loans of 300 million soums ($23,315) to such entrepreneurs.
This initiative is expected to create jobs for 1.5 million people in the coming years.
Currently, funds for family entrepreneurship programs come exclusively from state resources.
The People’s Bank, under the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) financial accessibility program, offers loans of up to 50 million soums ($3,885) without excessive documentation or collateral. The ADB has committed $150 million to the program.
Following this model, nine state banks have been advised to secure $1 billion in foreign loans by 2025, aiming to provide income opportunities for 250,000 people.
In September 2023, Uzbekistan launched a comprehensive program for continuous small business support, led by the newly established Business Development Bank. The initiative, set to run until 2026, is backed by 6 trillion soums ($466,313,875) and $1.2 billion from international institutions.
