The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, has issued a loan in the local currency equivalent of USD 770,000 to Oxus Kyrgyzstan, a member of the France-based Oxus Group. Oxus Kyrgyzstan is a microfinance institution (MFI) that was founded in 2006. As of 2019, it had 7,600 active borrowers, mostly women. The MFI lends to individuals and groups, largely for agriculture and livestock breeding.
As of 2018, the Oxus Group serves 41,000 clients in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with an aggregate gross loan portfolio of USD 32 million. None of these institutions offer deposits. Oxus Group is majority-held by ACTED, a French NGO formerly known as the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development. Founded in 1993, ACTED is active in areas such as disaster resilience and “cultural promotion” in 38 countries as of 2019.
GCA Foundation was launched in 2008 by the directors of Credit Agricole, a French retail bank, and 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 promoting financial inclusion and social entrepreneurship. As of May 2019, GCA Foundation has a portfolio of EUR 82.2 million (USD 92.4 million). It supports 81 partners in 38 countries in Africa and Eurasia. These partners serve approximately 4.1 million customers, of whom 74 percent are women and 75 percent live in rural areas.
By Anuhya Tadepalli, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Oxus Kyrgyzstan profile
http://www.oxusnetwork.org/our-microfinance-institutions/oxus-kyrgyzstan
Oxus Group homepage
http://www.oxusnetwork.org/
ACTED homepage
https://www.acted.org/en/
GCA Foundation homepage
http://gca-foundation.org/
GCA Foundation 2018 Annual Report
http://gca-foundation.org/news/The-Foundation-publishes-its-2018-Integrated-Annual-Report
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Lends $776k to Oxus Kyrgyzstan for Microfinance Lending
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-grameen-credit-agricole-foundation-lends-776k-to-oxus-kyrgyzstan-for-microfinance-lending/
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