The Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation (GCA) has told MicroCapital that it lent Agora Microfinance Zambia (AMZ), an affiliate of UK-based Agora Microfinance Partners, local currency approximately equivalent to USD 687,000. AMZ offers loans and insurance services – including via mobile banking – in rural parts of Zambia. Its loan products are: (1) “End-of-term” loans, which are targeted at people with seasonal income sources and range in size from ZMW 500 (USD 42) to ZMW 2,500 (USD 208); (2) “Flexi” loans for “households with more stable businesses” that range from ZMW 500 (USD 42) to ZMW 4500 (USD 375); (3) “Small Business Group” loans of ZMW 1000 (USD 83) to ZMW 10,000 (USD 835); and (4) “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME)” loans of ZMW 25,000 (USD 2,100) to ZMW 200,000 (USD 16,700). These loans carry maximum terms of one year, except for MSME loans, which can range up to three years.
According to AMZ’s 2017 annual report, it closed that year with total assets of USD 2.8 million and a gross loan portfolio of USD 2.7 million disbursed to 16,800 active borrowers.
The long-term strategy of Agora Microfinance Partners is tiered “to maximise depth of outreach (reaching the very poor), then ensure high efficiency in our operations…, followed by an expansion of the product range to go beyond loans and into other products such as deposits, insurance and remittances.” The organization, which also operates in Cambodia and India, reports total assets of USD 295 million, 575,000 depositors and 380,000 active borrowers as of 2017.
GCA Foundation was founded in 2008 by Credit Agricole SA, a French retail bank, in partnership with Muhammad Yunus, the founder of both Grameen Bank and Grameen Trust of Bangladesh. The foundation provides funding and technical assistance to microfinance institutions and other social businesses. As of November 2018, GCA Foundation has commitments of approximately EUR 78 million (USD 89 million) outstanding to 77 partners in 35 countries in Africa and Eurasia. Its partners serve approximately 3 million customers, of whom 75 percent are women and 79 percent live in rural areas.
Research Associate, Tiannah Steele
Sources and Additional Resources
Direct contact With Grameen Agricole Foundation
Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation data
http://gca-foundation.org/the-foundation
Agora Microfinance Zambia annual report
https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/d44b9f_0ec44e2ee76649da969650488abd182c.pdf
Agora Microfinance Zambia homepage
https://www.amz.co.zm/
Agora Microfinance annual report
https://agoramicrofinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Agora_AnnualReport2017-web-lq.pdf
Agora Microfinance homepage
https://agoramicrofinance.com/
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