Source: Incofin.
Original press release not available online.
Incofin, Belgium’s leading microfinance investment company is investing USD 750,000 as lead investor in the first equity increase of ACME, one of the Haitian Microfinance leaders. ACME is Haiti’s second largest microfinance institution in terms of number of clients (25,000 active clients) and the third in terms of portfolio (USD 10 million).
ACME was founded in 1997 by a Belgian social entrepreneur with the mission of “bringing a fast, quantitatively important solution, at the lowest possible cost and without unnecessary constraints, to the capitalization needs of a maximum number of micro, small and medium sized businesses of the informal sector in Haiti”.
After operating as a NGO for ten years, ACME decided to transform in 2008 into a limited liability company in order to pursue its mission. ACME has finalized its transformation into a limited liability company in July 2009 and initial shareholders of ACME include ACME the founding NGO, Incofin, 3 private individual investors and FIE NGO, the founder of FIE FFP in Bolivia, a leading Bolivian microfinance institution.
By bringing these likeminded investors together, ACME intends to strengthen its solvency, to reinforce its governance and to receive best-practices and innovations from a leading microfinance institution in the Latin American region, while expanding its coverage in Haiti and reaching further micro entrepreneurs. This investment is considered twice as “pioneer”: it rallies private investors in their effort to back the development of a local MFI in a challenging political and economic context. It also provides one of the best examples of “South-South” microfinance partnership as it brings together the experience of an early transformed Caribbean MFI and a Bolivian mature MFI.
Created in 1992, Incofin’s mission is to support MFIs by providing financial services tailored to the needs of microentrepreneurs. Incofin’s intrinsic values include social motivation, transparency, operational efficiency, and long-term vision. Shareholders of Incofin include (mostly Belgian) companies, foundations, and private individuals motivated to promote entrepreneurship in developing and transition countries.
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