The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently informed MicroCapital that it is lending approximately USD 31,000 to Palmis Eneji, a social business in Haiti that uses a franchise model to sell lighting and cooking appliances via 180 entrepreneurs. These appliances include: (1) solar devices that provide lighting and charge mobile phones; and (2) cookstoves that either use gas or less charcoal than traditional stoves. From 2013 through 2016, the firm reports saving 34,000 households the equivalent of USD 3.1 million in energy costs, including 46,000 tons of wood.
The GCA Foundation owns a 15-percent stake in Palmis Eneji. The firms other shareholders are Entrepreneurs du Monde, a French NGO promoting development in low-income countries, and Yunus Social Business, a Germany-based NGO that invests “in social businesses that provide employment, education, healthcare, clean water and clean energy to over a million people worldwide” as of 2018.
The GCA Foundation was founded in 2008 by Credit Agricole SA, a French retail bank, in partnership with Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. The foundation provides funding and technical assistance to microfinance institutions and other social businesses with the aim of creating a “better-shared economy.” As of December 2017, GCAF had commitments of EUR 64 million (USD 79 million) outstanding to 69 partners in 28 countries in Africa and Eurasia. Its partners serve 3 million customers, of whom 76 percent are women and 81 percent live in rural areas.
Sources and Additional Resources
Information direct from the Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation
Palmis Eneji’s product line
http://www.palmiseneji.com/nos-produits.html
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