The National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), a member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), welcomed the Executive Director at AFI, Mr. Alfred Hannig, for a visit and meeting with NBT Deputy Chairman Mr. Umed Barotovich Latifov and Deputy Chairwoman Ms. Lola Jumaevna Salimova, in Dushanbe on 28 and 29 June 2016.

The trip included a visit of the one of the major event venues of NBT, in the town of Pugus (42 km north of the capital Dushanbe in the Varzob River Valley), which could offer opportunities for potential meetings to be held jointly held by NBT and AFI.

NBT has been a member of the AFI network since 2011.

Deputy Chairwoman Salimova stressed how important it is for the countries in Central Asia to co-operate to promote financial inclusion. She also highlighted that NBT has found the AFI peer-learning platform neutral, uninfluenced, unbiased and well-suited for the exchange of knowledge and experiences among the Central Banks in the complex political context found in Central Asia.

Deputy Latifov added, “We (Central Asia) share many of the same challenges and need to collaborate even more closely on making remittance transfers cheaper and faster, enhance on non-cash applications, and develop and enforce stricter AML/CFT regulation to better monitor and prevent suspicious transactions. These three areas are key to be strengthened in order to achieve fully-functional, stable and inclusive financial systems.” Apart from the need to strengthen regional exchange and collaboration NBT expressed demand for concrete capacity building support from the AFI network. The next activity will be the trip of a NBT delegation to attend the training AFI co-organizes with Central Bank of Kenya on intermediate digital financial services, which will be held in Nairobi, 18-20 July 2016.

Tajikistan has made important advancements to improve and increase access to financial services to the unbanked in recent years, however more work is needed as only 11.5 percent of adults have an account at a formal financial institution.

In fact, NBT made a Maya Declaration Commitment to work toward including 30 percent of the population in formal financial services, particularly through the use of digital financial services (DFS). “The Central Bank is obviously working hard to achieve this target (by 2017), and NBT has displayed impressive commitment and engagement as an AFI member from the Central Asia region,” said Mr. Hannig.

The meeting concluded with an agreement to explore the possibilities and opportunities to strengthen peer learning in Central Asia and with member institutions from neighboring countries.