YEREVAN, November 24. /ARKA/. The Executive Director of the Armenian Agriculture Development Fund Gegham Grigoryan and the Deputy Executive Director of ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK Norik Nazaryan signed a Memorandum of Cooperation today as part of the “Program on Subsidizing Interest Rates on Agricultural Loans,” the Ministry of Agriculture said.
The ministry said the Armenian Agriculture Development Fund organizes special courses for business entities before to provide them with subsidized loans.
“Within the framework of the memorandum the ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK will assist in organizing financial literacy classes conducted by the Fund. We will have more financially competent farmers, which is important both for us and for financial structures,” Gegham Grigoryan said.
He added that the courses , which are held in the regional structures of the Fund, last up to five days. According to him, about 6 thousand people have applied to participate in the program.
“This year, about 1,300 farmers have attended the courses to improve their financial literacy level. We try to teach the participants how to manage their cash flow and how to run their businesses in the most efficient way,” said Norik Nazaryan.
Under the program of subsidizing interest rates on agricultural loans, the beneficiaries are given loans in the amount of 3-10 million drams, with an interest rate of 5%. The interest rate for border communities receiving social assistance is 3%.
ACBA was established in 1996 as part of EU’s TACIS program. As a result of a long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation between ACBA Bank and the French Credit Agricole the latter became the biggest shareholder of ACBA in 2006, September. ACBA was restructured, becoming a closed joint stock company and was renamed ACBA CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK. ($ 1 – 483.99 drams) -0-
