MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI) Loans $3m to Musoni Microfinance to Expand Fintech Services in Kenya

A Norway-based public-private partnership that supports microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing countries, the Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI), recently agreed to loan USD 3 million to Musoni Microfinance, a financial technology (fintech) company founded in 2010, to help it expand its cashless services and other “technology driven financial solutions” in Kenya. Musoni Microfinance serves 30,000 clients in the country as of 2018. Its loans range in size from KES 500 (USD 5) to KES 3 million (USD 30,000) and carry monthly interest rates of 1.67 percent for individual loans and 1.83 percent for group loans.

Musoni Investments, which is based in the Netherlands, holds stakes in Musoni Microfinance as well as Musoni Services, which offers software for managing MFIs. Musoni Services’ software-as-a-service package, which is called the Musoni System, is licensed to 93 microfinance institutions in Africa and Asia as of 2017.

NMI was founded in 2008 with the goal of creating jobs and wealth on a sustainable basis. As of 2018, NMI operates the following investment funds: NMI Global Fund, which was established in 2008 and has assets of USD 60 million deployed in MFIs deemed “large and sustainable;” NMI Frontier Fund, which was created in 2008 and has USD 40 million placed in MFIs operating in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia; and NMI Fund III, which was launched in 2013 with investor commitments of USD 95 million to invest in MFIs considered to be financially sustainable or likely to become so in the near future.

By Michelle Fleming, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Nordic Microfinance Initiative press release
https://nmimicro.no/en/travel-letter/musoni-investment

Musoni Microfinance homepage
https://musoni.co.ke

Nordic Microfinance Initiative homepage
https://nmimicro.no

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI) Raises $105m from DNB, Ferd, IFU, KLP, Norfund for Fund IV for MFIs in Africa, Asia
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-nordic-microfinance-initiative-nmi-raises-105m-from-dnb-ferd-ifu-klp-norfund-for-fund-iv-for-mfis-in-africa-asia/

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Goodwell Investments Buys Equity Stake in Microfinance Software Provider Musoni
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-goodwell-investments-buys-equity-stake-microfinance-software-provider-musoni/

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