The Netherlands Development Finance Company, which is also known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently invested USD 7.5 million in the Acumen Resilient Agriculture Fund (ARAF), an entity
Search Results for: Ghana
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nigerian Fintech Firm OPay Raises $120m in Equity Funding for Digital Payments, Ride Hailing, Food Delivery
OPay, a Nigerian mobile platform for making payments, arranging car rides and ordering deliveries from restaurants, recently raised USD 120 million in equity from 10 investors to scale up in Nigeria and expand to countries such as Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. OPay’s transportation arm, ORide, facilitates up to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: With “Homeland” App, MTN Opens Remittance Channels from Europe to Africa, Afghanistan, Yemen
South Africa’s MTN Group recently released an application for mobile phones called MTN Homeland that allows users to send money or airtime to 17 countries from Europe. The service allows cash remittances to Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Guinea Conakry, Rwanda and Uganda. It also allows the sending of
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Motorcycle Taxi Leasing Company Tugende of Uganda Raises $13m, Looks to Expand Its Boda-boda Finance to Kenya
Uganda’s Tugende, which specializes in leases for motorcycle taxis known as boda-bodas, recently raised USD 13 million from undisclosed sources with the support of Verdant Capital. Of this total, USD 2 million has been disbursed so far. Tugende has 14,000 active leases and a loan book of USD 13.7 million as of September 2019, up four-fold since January 2018. Its 30-day portfolio-at-risk ratio remains below 1 percent, and Verdant calls the firm “robustly profitable.”
Tugende, which translates as “let’s go,” has 16 branches in Uganda and recently received a license to
SPECIAL REPORT: Sharing Tractors Like Uber, Selling Agricultural Inputs Like Mobile Phone Credit, Motivating Savers Like Clockwork
At 
a session on agricultural and financial technology during the recent SAM conference, Emmanuel Ansah-Amprofi of Ghana’s Trotro Tractor described how his company’s service helps small-scale farmers mechanize their operations. Farmers call a toll-free number to request a tractor for a short period of time, such as for harvest. Within 72 hours, the farmer is connected with one of the 320 tractor owners that partners with Trotro. Trotro takes a commission of 10 percent on the payment from the farmer to the tractor owner, which totals USD 20 to USD 25 per acre. Mr Ansah-Amprofi said the mechanization helps the farmers increase their yields by 50 percent to 66 percent.
With more demand for tractors than its tractor owners can supply, Trotro has developed several methods for supporting tractor buyers. For example, Trotro’s data can help a bank
SPECIAL REPORT: Microfinance Institutions Find Success in Agricultural Lending by Sharing Risk with Input Suppliers, Produce Buyers in Africa
At last week’s SAM conference, Giorgi Samadashvili described a risk-sharing framework that Advans Ghana, a member of the France-based Advans Group, has been using to fund small-scale farmers. Since 2017, the institution has lent a total of EUR 534,000 (USD 600,000) to 5,400 farmers in partnership with the farmers’ suppliers and aggregators. The arrangement depends on very strong relationships with suppliers, which, of course, gain direct benefits from the farmers’ loans. The suppliers take initial loan applications from
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Trustco of Namibia Earns Higher Rating by Extending Debt Term, Supporting Interests in Finance, Education, Real Estate, Mining
Namibia-based Trustco Group Holdings, whose members include the Institute for Open Learning (IOL), Trustco Finance, Trustco Bank, Trustco Life, Trustco Insurance and Trustco Resources, recently negotiated a term extension with its lender group. Subsequently, Mauritius-based GCR Ratings increased Trustco Group’s financial rating to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Activa Insurance, AXA Cameroon, IFC Launch Agricultural Index Insurance Project
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, recently partnered with two insurance companies in Cameroon to create agricultural index insurance products. These products offer payments to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Flutterwave, Alibaba Group’s Alipay to Offer Digital Payments Between Africa, China
Flutterwave, a US-based business-to-business (B2B) payments service that focuses on Africa, recently began collaborating with Alipay, a payments unit of the Chinese technology conglomerate Alibaba Group, to provide digital payments from Africa to China and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Tugende Borrowing $6m for Boda-boda (Motorcycle Taxi) Leasing in Uganda
Tugende, a leasing company in Uganda that specializes in motorcycle taxis, recently agreed to borrow USD 6 million from undisclosed investors to expand its operations. Tugende, which translates as “Let’s Go,” has 10 branches in the country. Since its launch in 2010, it has served 20,000 clients, of whom 8,000 have paid off their “boda-bodas” completely.
The requirements to lease a boda-boda include one year of driving experience, two personal guarantors and
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP UP: “Building Resilience Through Financial Inclusion: A Review of Existing Evidence and Knowledge Gaps,” published by Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)
This is a summary of a paper by Danielle Moore, Zahra Niazi, Rebecca Rouse and Berber Kramer; published by Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA); January 2019; 16 pages; available at
https://www.poverty-action.org/sites/default/files/publications/Building-Resilience-Through-Financial-Inclusion-January-2019.pdf
Lower household incomes are linked with lower levels of resilience from financial setbacks. The authors suggest that access to savings and other forms of financial inclusion can
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Smart Applications of Kenya Pays OTI $2.75m for MediSmart Medical Information, Insurance Claims Management System
Verdant Capital, a Mauritius-based corporate finance firm operating across Africa, has advised On Track Innovations (OTI), an Israel-based provider of products such as cashless payment systems, on its recent sale of MediSmart, a medical information management platform focused on the East African market. Smart Applications International, a biometric technology firm based in Kenya, paid USD 2.75 million for MediSmart, which has annual revenues of approximately USD 1.5 million. According to Verdant Capital, “By enabling efficient patient identification and claims administration, MediSmart facilitates the broadest possible
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Verdant Capital Raises $7m in Debt for Ferme Agro-Pastorale Jambo – Farmer, Miller of Maize Flour in DRC
Verdant Capital, a Mauritius-based corporate finance firm operating across Africa, recently informed MicroCapital that it has raised loan funds totaling USD 7 million for Ferme Agro-Pastorale Jambo, which grows and mills maize flour in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The identities of the investors remains confidential. In March 2018, Ferme Jambo brought Jambo Breakfast Meal to market in the Greater Katanga region, where 70 percent of flour is
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nigeria’s Access Bank Buying Diamond Bank to Reach Total of 12m Customers
Nigeria-based Access Bank recently agreed to purchase Nigeria’s Diamond Bank for cash totaling NGN 72.5 billion (USD 199 million) plus stock in Access Bank. Diamond Bank shareholders will receive the equivalent of NGN 3.13 per share
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Barclays, Jumo, MTN MoMo Partner on Mobile Savings in Zambia
Barclays Bank Zambia, a unit of the South Africa-based Absa Group; mobile telephone network operator Mobile Money, which is also known as MTN MoMo and is a subsidiary of South Africa’s MTN Group; and Mauritius-based financial technology firm Jumo World Limited recently announced the launch of a mobile savings product
SPECIAL REPORT: Despite a “Solid” Willingness to Invest in Microinsurance, a “Terrifying” Lack of Coverage
On 
the last day of European Microfinance Week, Katharine Pulvermacher of the Luxembourg-based Microinsurance Network led a discussion on insuring people with daily incomes of USD 2 to USD 20. Those with lower incomes, she argued, will have to be covered by government safety nets.
Anup Singh of India-based consultancy MicroSave described the path to success in microinsurance as
SPECIAL REPORT: Advans Cote d’Ivoire Wins $113k European Microfinance Award for Inclusive Finance Through Technology
Last night, Advans Cote d’Ivoire (CI), a microfinance institution in Cote d’Ivoire, won the European Microfinance Award 2018, which was themed “Financial Inclusion through Technology” and includes a cash prize of EUR 100,000 (USD 113,000). Advans CI, a member of the Advans Group, offers payment, saving and credit services that can be linked to MTN mobile money accounts. The cocoa farmers who are customers of Advans CI were having trouble with traceability and safety issues related to being paid by cooperatives in cash. They were also having trouble saving money from harvest time until the school year begins, resulting in low school enrollment. Advans CI responded by creating a
SPECIAL REPORT: Verdant Capital: Hybrid Capital Solutions to Support the Next Phase of Inclusive Growth
This sponsored content was written by Edmund Higenbottam, Managing Director of Verdant Capital, and Raj Domun, Director and Fund Manager of the Verdant Capital Hybrid Fund. Verdant Capital is a leading specialist financial advisory firm that operates on a pan-African basis.
In recent years, the Inclusive Financial Institution sector has grown significantly in Africa and elsewhere, driven in part by growth in the global specialist investor base supporting the sector, and in part due to the growth of local debt markets. In Africa, this growth has stretched the equity capital bases of many institutions – and of the sector as a whole – due to the