MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ACEP Niger, ACFIME Borrow in Local Currency from Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation for Microfinance in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Luxembourg-based Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation recently announced it has issued a local-currency loan equivalent to EUR 762,000 (USD 756,000) in favor of Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) Niger. As of 2022, ACEP Niger has a loan portfolio of EUR 6.6 million (USD 6.5 million) and an unspecified level of deposits held for customers. It was founded in 2012 and has 12,000 savers and 3,700 borrowers. Of these borrowers, about seven in ten live in rural areas and about three in ten are women.

ACEP Niger is member of ACEP Group, which also owns stakes in ACEP Burkina, ACEP Madagascar, and – to take effect during 2023 – ACEP Cameroon. As of 2021, these institutions employ 1,200 people, hold an aggregate gross loan portfolio of EUR 107 million (USD 116 million), and serve 148,000 customers – of whom 40 percent are women. The group was created by ACEP International, a private company whose ownership includes its co-founder Thierry Perreau; Investisseurs and Partenaires (I&P), a France-based investor in small and medium-sized enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa; and the government-owned Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, which is also known as BIO.

GCA Foundation also has lent the local currency equivalent of EUR 457,000 (USD 453,000) to Agence Communautaire pour le Financement de la Micro Entreprise (ACFIME), which was founded in Burkina Faso in 1992. The institution mainly serves woman-owned micro-, and small enterprises (MSEs) in urban areas. As of 2022, it has 23,000 customers and a loan portfolio of EUR 2.3 million (USD 2.2 million).

Crédit Agricole, a French retail bank, in partnership with Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, established GCA Foundation in 2008. The organization seeks to reduce poverty by providing funding and technical assistance to microfinance institutions and other social businesses. As of 2022, it manages assets valued at EUR 89 million (USD 91 million) outstanding to 75 partners in 36 countries in Africa and Eurasia.

Crédit Agricole was established in 1885 to provide agricultural loans in France. As of December 2021, it serves 53 million people in 47 countries. It values its assets under management at EUR 2.6 trillion (USD 2.6 trillion) as of March 2022.

By Ben Greissman, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

GCA Foundation press release
https://www.gca-foundation.org/en/media-room/#the-foundation-grants-four-new-loans-in-sub-saharan-africa

Group ACEP homepage
https://groupacep.com

Group ACEP network page
https://groupacep.com/Notre-Reseau-en

ACFIME homepage
https://www.acfime.org

GCA Foundation profile on ACFIME
https://www.gca-foundation.org/en/organisation/acfime-2/

Previous MicroCapital article on GCA Foundation
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-grameen-credit-agricole-foundation-loans-3-1m-to-microfinance-institution-baobab-burkina-faso/

Previous MicroCapital article on ACEP
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-incofin-sells-20-equity-stake-in-acep-burkina-to-sidi/

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