Triple Jump news - Monday, March 14, 2011

Triple Jump congratulates Bai Tushum

MARCH 2011 – Bai-Tushum & Partners, a leading microfinance institution in Kyrgyzstan, celebrates its 10th anniversary. Triple Jump, the first foreign equity investor in Bai Thusum, congratulates the MFI with this mile stone.

‘This is a very important moment, not only for Bai-Tushum, but also for Triple Jump, and for the microfinance sector as a whole in Kyrgyzstan’, says Erik Geurts, Senior Equity Investment Officer of Triple Jump and as such also member of the Board of Bai-Tushum. Erik Geurts attended the anniversary celebrations in Kyrgyz last week. He is impressed by the perfect way the anniversary was organized. “One can see that this is a very well run MFI.”

In the last 10 years more than 83 thousand clients acquired loans for the sum of more than 100 million Euro. Today Bai-Tushum holds 25% of the total volume of the microfinance market loan portfolio and proves to be a reliable and stable institution.

Bai-Tushum has been awarded three international prizes. The award for exemplary leadership and prominent financial activity from ACDI/VOCA; the award for financial transparency from CGAP; and the ‘Silver’ award for social transparency from the Mix Market!

Recently Bai-Tushum received β+ rating from Micro-Credit Rations International, for the realization of its social mission. This confirms the use of a very effective system of control and a devoted implementation of its social mission and values.

“Great attention is being paid to women, who live both in urban and rural places”, says General Manager Gulnara Shamshieva, on the website of Bai-Tushum. “Today the portion of women-entrepreneurs makes up 45% of the total client base. Quite often they are teachers and physicians, who lost their jobs and launched entrepreneurial activity. Exactly this kind of people need small loans, for example for starting of trade kiosk, shop, purchase of cattle for fattening, launching a garment and industrial factory. In the future we plan to develop new credit programs for support of women in entrepreneurship, by providing possibility for development and growth of their business.”