The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, has informed MicroCapital that it issued a three-year loan in local currency approximately equivalent to USD 776,000 in favor of Oxus Kyrgyzstan, a microfinance institution (MFI) that was founded in 2006. ACTED, a French NGO formerly known as the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development, holds 50.2 percent of the shares of Oxus Kyrgyzstan.
As of 2018, Oxus Kyrgyzstan had a gross loan portfolio of EUR 6.6 million (USD 7.5 million) and 7,000 active clients. The MFI lends mostly for agriculture, livestock breeding and trading. Forty-six percent of Oxus Kyrgyzstan’s clients are female, and approximately one-third of the institution’s loan book consists of group loans.
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, which is active in areas such as disaster resilience and “cultural promotion.” ACTED was founded in 1993 and operates 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 January 2019, GCA Foundation has commitments of approximately EUR 82 million (USD 92 million) outstanding to 79 partners in 35 countries in Africa and Eurasia. Its partners serve approximately 3.9 million customers, of whom 75 percent are women and 80 percent live in rural areas.
By Anuhya Tadepalli, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Direct contact with the Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation
Oxus Kyrgyzstan homepage
http://www.oxusnetwork.org/our-microfinance-institutions/oxus-kyrgyzstan
Oxus Group homepage
http://www.oxusnetwork.org/
ACTED homepage
https://www.acted.org
GCA Foundation homepage
http://gca-foundation.org/
GCA Foundation 2017 Annual Report
http://gca-foundation.org/data/grameen/publications-gca/rapport-annuel/2017-Annual Report-ENG.pdf
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Lends $3m in Local Currency to Asian Credit Fund of Kazakhstan, Oxus Tajikistan for Microfinance
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-grameen-credit-agricole-foundation-lends-3m-local-currency-asian-credit-fund-kazakhstan-oxus-tajikistan-microfinance/
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