Event Name: The Fourth Annual Microfinance Forum: Confronting Crisis & Change
Event Date: February 18-19, 2010
Search Results for: morocco
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Moroccan Government Supports Microfinance Industry’s Path to Recovery in 2010
According to a paper published by Mr Xavier Reille of CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), “Few countries boasted as strong and as vibrant a microfinance sector than Morocco, where microfinance institutions (MFIs) saw the size of their combined loan portfolio multiply 11 times between 2004 and 2007.”
MEET THE BOSS: Sebastien Duquet, Managing Director of PlaNIS (PlaNet Investment Services), a member of the PlaNet Finance Group
Sébastien Duquet is the Managing Director of PlaNIS (PlaNet Investment Services), a member of the PlaNet Finance Group.
MicroCapital: What is your background?
SD: Until recently, I was the Managing Director of PlaNet Finance, where I have worked since 2002. Previously, I was an auditor for Andersen and Ernst & Young for ten years, and I also worked for two years at HSBC bank.
MC: Please describe PlaNet Investment Services.
PRESS RELEASE: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Announces Additional Social Performance Reporting Awardees
Source: Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX).
MEET THE BOSS: Interview with Robert Annibale, Global Director of Citi Microfinance (Part Two of a Two Part Series)
Bob Annibale is Global Director of Citi Microfinance. He leads the bank’s commercial relationships with microfinance institutions, on a multi-business and product basis, providing financing and product partnerships to institutions that serve the poor and the unbanked.
He joined Citibank in 1982. After a first assignment in Greece, he held a number of senior treasury, risk and corporate positions at Citi in Athens, Bahrain, Kenya, London and New York. Mr. Annibale completed his BA degrees in History and Political Science at Vassar College and his Masters Degree in African Studies (History) at the University of London, School of Oriental and African Studies.
Mr. Annibale served on the Board of Advisors for the United Nations High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor. He represents Citi on the Board of the Microfinance Information Exchange, on the Council of Microfinance Equity Funds and with the Microfinance Network. He also serves on a number of other external boards and councils.
WHO’S WHO IN MICROFINANCE: The Microfinance Gateway (www.microfinancegateway.org), Provided by World Bank’s Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP)
Launched in 2000, the Microfinance Gateway is self-proclaimed as “the most comprehensive online resource for the global microfinance community,” getting over four million page hits from 200 countries in 2008. The website is provided by the microfinance arm of the World Bank, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), in an effort to advance knowledge and encourage innovation within the microfinance industry [1]. In May of this year, the site was re-launched, with interactive features such as ratings, reviews and comment boards. Also among the additions are “Hot Topic” pages with relevant links and overviews for microfinance-related investment, rural and agricultural finance, social performance, microinsurance, savings, technology and more. In an effort to further improve the site, CGAP has released the Microfinance Gateway User Survey 2009, which asks users to rate and comment on new features including accessibility, breadth and depth of information, job postings and the “attractiveness” of the new user interface [2].
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Banque Populaire and Burgundy School of Business Present Institutional and Technological Environment for Microfinance Conference, Jan 7-8, 2010, New Delhi
Event Name: Institutional and Technological Environment for Microfinance
Event Date: January 7-8, 2010
Event Location: New Delhi, India, India Habitat Center
See Our Comprehensive Event Calendar Here: http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/events
MICROCAPITAL.ORG STORY: Grameen-Jameel Pan-Arab Microfinance Ltd. in Dubai Appoints Julia Assaad as Its New General Manager
For discussion of this topic click here: http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/forum/topics/gossip-column-human-interest
Grameen-Jameel Pan-Arab Microfinance Ltd. (Grameen-Jameel), a joint venture based in Dubai between the Grameen Foundation and Abdul Latif Jameel Group, announced it would appoint Julia Assaad as its new General Manager [1, 2]. Grameen Foundation is a Washington, DC-based non–profit, and Abdul Latif Jameel Group is a Saudi Arabia-based for-profit business group [3, 5]. Alex Counts, Grameen-Jameel Director and President of Grameen Foundation, stated that Ms. Assaad was brought on to help reach its goal of adding one million new microfinance clients by 2011 [2]. As reported in a previous MicroCapital story on the Arab Microfinance Investment Symposium that took place in November 2008, the Arab microfinance industry has an estimated total market of USD 5.5 billion in the Arab world [13]. Moreover, Heather Henyon, the General Manager of Grameen-Jameel at the time, cited that currently there are 2.9 million borrowers in Arab countries that make up less than four percent of the total demand for microfinance in Arab countries [13]. The untapped market for microfinance is valued at USD 3.96 billion, only slightly less than the USD 5.29 billion that is calculated as the total microfinance market [13].
MICROCAPITAL EVENT: Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Microfinance Conference 2009 in Amman, Jordan on October 26-27, 2009, Organized by UniGlobal Research in Association with Sanabel
Event Name: MENA Microfinance Conference 2009
Date: October 26-27, 2009
Location: Amman, Jordan
See Our Comprehensive Event Calendar Here: http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/events
MICROCAPITAL PAPER WRAP-UP: Migrant Remittances: A Development Challenge, Published by the African Development Bank Group
“Migrant Remittances: A Development Challenge”, Published by the African Development Bank Group, 2009. Available at: http://collab2.cgap.org//gm/document-1.9.34957/Migrant%20Remittances,%20a%20Development%20Challenge.pdf
This 85 page report presents the results of the African Development Bank (AfDB)’s 2007 extensive study on migrant remittances. The study involved a survey of emigrants from Morocco, Senegal, Mali, and the Comoros as well as beneficiaries in the countries. The African countries, while very different from one another, all have a French colonial background while the emigrants surveyed lived in France, Italy, and Spain. The study examines the use of remittances and preferences for various transfer mechanisms to ultimately present various challenges in dealing with remittances as well as a number of suggestions for how to improve the method and use of remittances. Among the suggestions is the recommendation that microfinance institutions (MFIs) expand or mobile banking services be offered, so that beneficiaries of remittances might readily access the transferred money through a formal mechanism. Remittances constitute a great volume of cash inflow to the countries surveyed, totaling between 9 percent of GDP in Morocco and 24 percent in the Comoros, or between 80 and 750 percent of the countries’ official development assistance (ODA).
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Grameen-Jameel Issues a USD 2.7 Million Local-Currency Guarantee to Aga Khan Agency, First Microfinance Institution (FMFI) Syria
Grameen-Jameel, a social business established in 2007 that serves the Arab microfinance industry, has recently announced that it has issued local-currency guarantee worth USD 2.7 million to Aga Khan Agency the First Microfinance Institution (FMFI) Syria, part of the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM). The multi-million dollar credit facility focuses to improve the lives of 2,700 underprivileged Syrians through credit, deposits and other financial services. No additional information regarding how the fund will function is provided.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Zurich Bolivia and Microfinance Bank BancoSol To Offer Life Insurance To Bolivian Emigrants
Zurich Bolivia, a unit of Zurich Financial Services, and the microfinance bank BancoSol of Bolivia have partnered to offer insurance to Bolivian emigrants in Spain. The insurance comes in four different plans. The first plan, requiring a premium of USD 57, covers 10,000 dollars in case of death due to any cause and the return of the body to Bolivia. The second plan, requiring an annual premium of USD 86, offers the same benefits, as well as home expenses for the family for one calendar year. The third plan, requiring a premium of USD 100, covers the return of the body to Bolivia and the cost of education for two children up to USD 300 per year per child. The fourth plan, requiring a premium of USD 129, includes all of the above benefits.
NEWS WIRE: Syria: Grameen-Jameel Issues Local-Currency Guarantee Worth $2.7m to Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance Affiliate First Microfinance Institution Syria
Source: Zawya.
PAPER WRAP-UP: Will the Bottom of the Pyramid Hit Bottom? The Effects of the Global Credit Crisis on the Microfinance Sector, by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
By Barbara Magnoni and Olga Jennifer Powers of EA Consultants, published by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), March 2009, microReport number 150, 54 pages, available at:
The produced report by USAID provides an assessment on the impact of the financial crisis on the microfinance sector. The paper provides a framework for assessing the impact of the crisis on the microfinance sector by analyzing the effects on both the liabilities side (access to finance, cost of funding, financial risk) and the asset side (portfolio growth, portfolio risk, portfolio quality) of an MFI’s (Microfinance Institutions) balance sheet in order to determine the extent that MFIs may have been impacted.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Enda Inter-Arabe Rolls Out Grameen Foundation’s Mifos Information Management Platform to 52 Branches with Assistance from Grameen-Jameel and ThoughtWorks
Grameen-Jameel Pan-Arab Microfinance Limited and Grameen Foundation (GF) have announced that enda Inter-Arabe of Tunisa (enda) has gone live on Mifos, the management information system for microfinance institutions. Mifos is an open source software program, meaning, among other things, the source code is accessible and the software is freely redistributable. The platform was developed by Grameen Foundation and launched in the Arab World by Grameen-Jameel. According to the press release in CSRwire, enda expects the investment in Mifos to assist it in managing its growth from the current 100,000-plus poor clients across Tunisia to its target of 300,000 by the end of 2012. The announcement was made at the 2009 Sanabel Microfinance Conference in Beirut, Lebanon, a gathering of microfinance practitioners and stakeholders in the Middle East and North Africa.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: European Development Finance Institutions Part 2: KfW Entwicklungsbank Remains One of the Largest Global Investors in Microfinance
KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW), a development bank that finances investments on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has made significant contributions to the microfinance sector in recent years. Between January 2007 and April 2009, KfW has invested at least USD 250 million in microfinance services around the world, with its outstanding commitments to the sector likely making that number even higher.
PAPER WRAP-UP: Arab Microfinance Analysis and Benchmarking Report, 2008 by the Arab Microfinance Network, Sanabel and the Microfinance Information Exchange, Inc. (MIX)
Written by Ranya Abdel-Baki, Manager of Transparency at Sanabel and Charles Cordier, Analyst at the MIX, published by the Microfinance Information Exchange Inc. (MIX), February 2009, 17 pages, available at:
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International Holds First Meeting of the Steering Committee for the Campaign for Client Protection in Microfinance; International Leaders Endorse the Six Principles of Client Protection in the Meeting
In the face of client protection failures in the mainstream financial sector, the first meeting of the Steering Committee for the Campaign for Client Protection in Microfinance was hosted by the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International. The meeting was attended by members of the committee which comprises of twenty-three leaders from various microfinance organizations representing a diversity of regions, types of institutions and expertise. The purpose of the meeting was aimed at ensuring microfinance providers worldwide remain committed to serving their clients’ best interests. According to a press release on PRNewsire, the leaders attending the meeting officially endorsed the six principles of client protection in microfinance launched by the campaign at the Clinton Global Initiative in September, 2008. MicroCapital had previously reported on the official launch of the campaign; more information on the story can be found here. The press release states the meeting has a ‘sense of importance and timing’ given the current financial crisis sweeping the world and the increasing focus on interest rates and transparency.