Valide Emirova

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Valide Emirova by Norwegian Microcredit LLC (Normicro) in Azerbaijan. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 10 months, Norwegian Microcredit LLC (Normicro) will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

I (Kiva Fellow) visited Valide and her husband’s home goods shop at the bazaar in the city of Devechi. Theirs is one of the handful of home goods store there and appeared to be the largest (at least 3 times the size of the others one I’ve visited).

Valide received the 1,000 manat (approx. 1.2 USD=1 manat) loan from Kiva lenders through Norwegian Microcredit in order to purchase more inventory. She showed me her store room at the back of her store and some of the items she purchased (3 shelves of wallpaper, water hose and paint). She had hoped that Norwegian Microcredit would allow her a larger loan as 1,000 manat does not buy very much stock. However, since this was her first loan, she could only take up to that amount. Ideally, she would borrow 10,000 manat to buy more stock in bulk quantities at more favorable prices.

Valide and her husband, as with most entrepreneurs in Devechi, did not have the opportunity to access credit until in recent years. Rather, the family built the business from hard earned savings over many years. Before they opened a business, she used to weave and sell carpets.