On 29 April 1999 Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise (NHE) established as project to implement micro-credit in Ganja Region.

The project was funded with an initial grant from Normisyon, much of which was raised through NorAd. It was initially a project of NHE rather than a separate legal entity.

The principle purpose of the organization was to promote the development of small businesses in Azerbaijan and reach out to Internally Displace Persons (IDP’s), micro-entrepreneurs and veterans.

Ganja Branch was the first branch established in 1999

The initial stage of development of Viator was headed by it first Executive Tor Knutsen from Norway.

On December 30, 2002 Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan (Viator) was separated from NHE and registered with the Ministry of justice in Azerbaijan.

The registration and separation of the project from NHE was due to some legal changes and policy development in Azerbaijan.

On September 30, 2003 Viator was registered under license # 136-QB in the central list of the National Bank of Azerbaijan (NBA) as a separate company from Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise.

The operations expand in Sheki City - Shaki is situated in northern Azerbaijan on the southern part of the Greater Caucasus Mountain.

Received a merit award in the CGAP financial transparency award.

Until mid-2005 grant funding was sufficient for Viator to continue to expand. But from that time onwards, grant funding has not been sufficient. This has forced Viator to start to seek other sources of finance. This in turn has forced many other good changes on Viator. Commercial investors demand a high level of transparency and check many areas of Viator’s operations that had previously not been held up to scrutiny.

Since mid-2005 Viator has implemented many changes in order to improve its transparency, governance and internal control. It has substantially improved its accounting systems. Internal control procedures are much stronger.

On May 2005 Viator employed a new Executive Director - Simon Bartlett joined

Viator rated carried out by an international rating agency (Mikrofinanza) and was the first MFI in Azerbaijan to be rated.

Viator Expanded and opened a branch operations to Delimemmedli - situated in the Azerbaijan state of Goranboy.

Expanded and opened a branch operations in Shemkir - It is located in the northwestern part of the Azerbaijan Republic.

Expanded and opened a branch operation in Qazakh - a city in and the capital of the Qazax Rayon of Azerbaijan.

Viator received the first commercial loan from Planet Finance amounting to 450,000 USD

Expanded and opened a branch operation in Balaken - is rayon of northwestern Azerbaijan, located between Georgia and Russia.

Viator hired a new Executive Director – Mr. Vencent A. Abraham from the Philippines an experience microfinance professional.

Introduced centralization of control and system and standardization of company policies and procedures.

Redefined loan products into Agricultural Loan, Small Enterprise Loan, Micro Entrepreneur Loan and Social Business Loan to fit the demand and requirements of the market.

Viator has opened a new branch in Agdash, which is located in the north-west of the country.

Viator has established 3 programs: Microfin (credit program), FINLED (Financial Literacy and Education for staff, clients and students), CARE program – environmental project.

At the same time the company has applied for the SMART Campaign Client Protection Certification in order to be the first certified company in Azerbaijan. The company has been awarded with the MF Transparency Seal of Pricing Transparency in September, 2014.

VIator has been awarded as the BEST Member of the Year by AMFA (Azerbaijan Microfinance Assosiation).

The company has established its own Quarterly Newsletter.

Also Viator has celebrated the 15 years of its committed service to the clients.

The company has changed the Executive Management and welcomed new CEO – Aynur Aliyeva, who has been with the company more than 10 years. She has started her career in Viator as the Finance Manager, continued as the Deputy Director and finally she has been appointed as the CEO of the company. Being an expert in the financial operations and having the International MBA degree she has lead the company during the hard financial crises, and worked towards keeping Viator on the top of success. The company has passed the SMART Campaign Client Protection Certification and been awarded the Certificate the SMART Campaign in Turin, Italy under the leadership of new Executive Management.

Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan has been honored to the AWARD of AMFA (Azerbaijan Micro Finance Assosiation) on the nomination of EDUCATING ITS CLIENTS on Financial Literacy.

Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan, in a partnership with Microfinance Center, has launched an international financial education campaign “Borrow Wisely” in October, 2015.

The company has established the 2 new departments: Problematic Loans Department and Legal Department.

Viator has continued its environmental activities in the frame of CARE program. Lots of educational materials concerning the FINLED education for staff and particularly clients have been developed by the Research and Development Department.

Viator Executive Management has participated in the 12th Annual Global Microfinance Forum iin Berlin.

Viator has developed new loan product – Consumer loan.

Viator Microcredit has been awarded with the Certificate of Appreciation for the participation in the Borrow Wisely Campaign 2015

Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan has been honored with the international Star for Leadership in Quality Award in the Gold Category for outstanding business achievements, for perseverance and leadership in excellence and quality in accordance with the QC 100 Criteria during the 21st International Star for Leadership in Quality Convention organized by the BID (Business Initiative Directions) on April, 2017 in Paris.

On 28th of April 2017 Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan has been honored with another valuable award “VIATOR MICROCREDIT is the Best institution in the field of client rights protection” during the AMFA 10th Annual Award Dinner.

THE BIZZ is considered to be the most important business excellence award in the world and is given out by WORLDCOB to the most outstanding companies and business people in each country. WORD BUSİNESS LEADER awarded to NON-Banking Organization Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan LLC and WORD LEADER BUSİNESSPERSON Mrs. Aynur Aliyeva for being a successful leader who works in an innovative, knowledgeable and systematic manner.

NBCO Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan LLC Management has attended Micro Finance Conference (MFC), organized by the MFC Center and European Microfinance Network (EMN) in October 3-5, 2018 in Bilbao, Spain. 

NBCO Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan LLC has been honored for the “Certificate of Transparency 2017” for achieveing 4 Diamonds on MİX Market and improving the transparency, quality and reliability of financial inclusion information in the 9th Micro Finance Conference otganized by Azerbaijan Micro Finance Assosiation. 

One of the biggest events in the international finance world, the 15th Global Microfinance Forum has been held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in March, 2019, The CEO of Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan - Aynur Aliyeva took part in that international forum and gave a professional speech on the Interactive Spotlight Session. 

The financial web site Banko.az has published a statistical article on the non-banking credit organizations that make the best use of the equity. Based on that article, Viator Microcredit ranked the 3rd place in terms of ratio of annual profit to equity (76.7 %) among the 36 non-banking credit organizations, operating in Azerbaijan in 2017-2018 years.  

  On 4 October 2019, Azerbaijan Micro-finance Association (AMFA) organized 6th Investors Fair devoted to the “Microfinance at the Crossroad: Sustainable Development in Digital Era”. NBCO Viator Microcredit Azerbaijan LLC has been honored for the “Certificate of Transparency 2018” for achieveing 4 Diamonds on MİX Market and improving the transparency, quality and reliability of financial inclusion information. Congratulation to Viator Microcredit team on their success! 

 Azerbaijan Micro-finance Association was represented by its board member, CEO of NBCO “Viator Microcredit” Ms. Aynur Aliyeva at the 18th National Russian Microfinance Association’s conference titled: “Microfinance- time for taking adult’s decision” organized by Association of Microfinance market practitioners (NAUMIR) and Russian Microfinance Center on 27-28th November 2019 in Sankt-Petersburg. The conference was attended by more than 600 participants mainly from Russian Federation with guests from Azerbaijan, Italy, Czech Republic, and South Africa.

The Second Karabakh War is an integral part of our history. 

From the first days of the war, Viator donated to the Armed Forces Fund for participants of the Great Patriotic War. Meetings with the participants of the Second Karabakh War were organized and supported by the branches. Debts of fallen soldiers and their first level family members have been fully written off. At the same time, the interest payment of the loans belonging to clients, who served in the war and their first level family members, has been fully written off.

As the client convenience is always a priority for VIATOR, the branch operating in Balakan city was opened to serve the clients with a new concept after complete renovation. Now the clients will be able to use the services of the branch in a more convenient way. In 2021, Viator has been awarded by AMFA in the nomination of "Advanced organization with client protection experience of the year".

Considering the convenience of clients, in 2022, Viator fully renovated its Ganja and Sheki branches with a new concept in order to adnvance its service level.