"Just over ten years ago, I found myself without work. All I had was a roof over my head and a small garden,” Bakhtiyar says, jutting his chin towards a rather large building that comprises a grocery store and an outdoor selling space. "And a wonderful wife. I’m still amazed at how far we’ve come,” he adds, smiling to Mrs. Novruzbeyov who is waving out the window from behind the counter.

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As you come to know Bakhtiyar and his family, his success comes as no surprise, however. A blend of unquenchable optimism and entrepreneurial drive, it is easy to imagine him spending no more than a few seconds about the lost job and instead seeing the opportunities in his little garden. "The first thing I did was to go see the manager of the local supermarket and ask what kind of produce he needed. And then I became a grower,” he explains. "A very small one, of course.”

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It was a careful progression and helping his family business every step along the way was Access Bank. "Frankly, I had no idea that a bank could be helpful. Not just to finance our growth, but to accelerate it as well,” he says. "You see the van over there? By taking out a loan to buy it, we were able to adapt to rising customer demand much sooner as well deliver fresher produce faster. What at first looked like an additional cost actually helped us to generate more revenue and be more profitable,” explains Bakhtiyar. "It’s the tenth loan so far and our business remains very robust.”

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