MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ACEP Cameroun, Musoni Kenya Borrow Local-currency Equivalent of $3.7m from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation

The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently informed MicroCapital that it is extending three-year, local-currency loans equivalent to USD 2.5 million to Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) au Cameroun and USD 1.2 million to Musoni Kenya.

ACEP Cameroun was founded in 1999 with support from the EU and the French government. Its mission is to provide “innovative and appropriate” financial services to promote the growth of very small and medium-sized enterprises that have been excluded from the financial system. As of 2015, the microbank reported to the US-based nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) total assets of USD 39 million, 17 branches, a gross loan portfolio of USD 36 million outstanding to 14,000 clients, and deposits of USD 9.5 million held for 17,000 clients.

ACEP International was founded in Senegal in 1989 and has since been replicated – in chronological order – in Madagascar, Cameroun, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Founded in 2010, Musoni Kenya provides digital loans to smallholder farmers and informal enterprises in sizes ranging from KES 500 (USD 5) to KES 3 million (USD 30,000) at monthly interest rates of 1.67 percent for individual loans and 1.83 percent for group loans. As of 2018, the institution has 23 branches and KES 1.2 billion (USD 12 million) in loans outstanding to 25,000 individuals and groups. Musoni Kenya is held by six investors, including Musoni Investments of the Netherlands. Musoni Investments’ other holding is Musoni Services, which offers the Musoni System, a software package for managing microfinance institutions.

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

Direct contact with the Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation

I&P on ACEP International
http://www.ietp.com/en/content/acep-africa-group-largest-african-microfinance-network-under-development

MIX
https://www.themix.org/

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