Belgium’s for-profit Incofin Investment Management recently received investments from German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) in two funds that it advises, the Fairtrade Access Fund (FAF), which invests in initiatives supporting farmers in developing countries, and FPM SA (Fonds pour l’inclusion financière en République Démocratique Congo), which lends “medium-term” funds to institutions serving micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises in DRC.
KfW invested USD 3.5 million in FAF, which requires its investees to have third-party certification that they meet environmental, labor and other standards. FAF was launched in 2012 by German NGO Fairtrade International, the US-based Grameen Foundation, KfW and Incofin. As of December 2016, the fund reports USD 28 million in loans outstanding to cooperatives, microfinance institutions, traders and processors in 16 countries in Latin America and Africa.
FPM SA, which received an investment of USD 3 million from KfW, was founded in 2014 as a companion fund to FPM ASBL, which has been providing technical assistance to financial institutions in DRC since 2007. FPM SA’s initial investors were the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries (BIO), the Dutch Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development Aid (Cordaid), KfW and Incofin CVSO.
As of 2017, Incofin manages assets worth USD 850 million through the following funds: Incofin CVSO, agRIF, the BIO account, FAF, FPM, Impulse Microfinance Investment Fund, Invest in Visions, Rural Impulse Funds I and II, VDK Loan Portfolio, and Volksvermogen.
KfW, which is owned by the federal and local governments of Germany, has 970 staff people deployed in 69 offices worldwide.
Sources and Additional Resources
Incofin
https://incofin.com/
FAF
https://www.incofinim.com/en/fund/fairtrade-access-fund
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