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:
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MICROCAPITAL STORY: SKS Microfinance, Madura Micro Finance and Grama Vidiyal to Offer Home Loans in India
According to a report in The Times of India, three Indian MFIs will begin offering home loan products to the rural poor. SKS Microfinance, Madura Micro Finance and Grama Vidiyal all plan to start rolling out home loans and home improvement loans to borrowers with good repayment records. According to Tara Thiagarajan, Chairman of Madura Micro Finance, the low cost construction model used by the rural poor has prompted the MFIs to offer the loans. Most people in Indian villages own plots and construct their own homes using indigenous materials.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: International Finance Corporation (IFC), Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), & VenturEast Micro Equity Managers Private Limited (VMEM) to Launch 5 Million USD Micro Venture Capital Fund For Young Entrepreneurs
International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has joined forces with Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), an organization that focuses on “mentoring” as a technique to help young entrepreneurs in India, and venture capital firm VenturEast Micro Equity Managers Private Limited (VMEM) to set up a fund that will provide financing to young Indian business persons with growth potential but limited resources. It will target in particular India’s disadvantaged entrepreneurs between 18-35 years, who are considered too high risk for debt financing and thus require equity injections.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Grameen-Jameel and Blue Orchard’s Arab Microfinance Investment Symposium Concludes that Microfinance in Arab World Totals US $5.5 billion
The Arab microfinance industry, with an estimated total market of USD 5.5 billion in the Arab world, remains a largely untapped area, it was reported in multiple Arab-based newspapers following the 2008 Arab Microfinance Investment Symposium held on November 30, 2008. The Symposium had a total of fifteen speakers, including speakers from Grameen-Jameel, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Blue Orchard Finance, and a variety of other organizations involved in microfinance, although the majority of the press focused on the presentation by Heather Henyon, the General Manager of Grameen-Jameel. The microfinance institutions (MFIs) on the MFI Panel included Jordan’s Tamweelcom, Egypt’s DBACD, Tunisia’s enda inter-arabe, and Pakistan’s Kashf Foundation. Additionally, more than 150 delegates from the UAE, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, Tunisia and Pakistan discussed the potential of the microfinance industry in the Arab region. The 2008 Arab Microfinance Investment Symposium was co-hosted by Grameen-Jameel, a social-oriented business based in Dubai, and BlueOrchard, a microfinance investment manager located in Geneva, Switzerland and was covered in this MicroCapital Event.
MICROCAPITAL EVENT: 2008 Arab Microfinance Investment Symposium
NOVEMBER 30, 2008, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
The 2008 Arab Microfinance Investment Symposium is a day-long event focusing on microfinance as an emerging asset class and investment opportunities in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan. The symposium will take place on November 30 at the Godolphin Ballroom of the Jumeirah Emirates Towers in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and it will be co-hosted by Grameen-Jameel, a social-oriented business based in Dubai, and BlueOrchard, a microfinance investment manager located in Geneva, Switzerland. Aramex and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have signed on as sponsors. The symposium has been marketed to asset managers, bankers, high net-worth individuals, family businesses and other interested investors.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: International Business and Finance Network (IBF Net) and Islamic Relief Worldwide Host an Islamic Microfinance Training Program
The Islamic Business and Finance Network (IBF Net), a global network of students, researchers, and finance professionals, and its Institute of Microfinance and Development together with Islamic Relief Worldwide, an international development and relief organization, held an international training program and workshop to discuss the nuances of Islamic microfinance was recently held in New Delhi. The program was attended by over sixty participants from the corporate sector, NGOs, and academics from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
NEWS WIRE: Microfinance Programmes Reaching Out to Muslim Women
Source: Gulf News.
PRESS RELEASE: Planet Finance to Enhance the Poor’s Access to Financial Services through a Mobile Banking Project in Africa and the Middle East
Source: Planet Finance.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Gates Foundation Grants 1.7 Million to PlaNet Finance And France Telecom’s Orange for Mobile Banking Microfinance Project
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has granted US$1.7 million to PlaNet Finance to fund a mobile banking project aimed at providing microfinance clients with enhanced access to banking services. The project was co-developed with mobile operator Orange and is attempting to facilitate cost-effective access to microfinance services and products for microentrepreneurs living in remote areas who cannot afford the time or the money to travel to the nearest bank or microfinance institution.
MICROCAPITAL PAPER WRAP-UP: Islamic Microfinance: An Emerging Market Niche, by Nimrah Karim, Michael Tarazi and Xavier Reille
Written by Nimrah Karim, Michael Tarazi and Xavier Reille and based primarily on secondary research by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), released in August 2008 as Number 49 of Focus Note, a publication of CGAP, 16 pages, available on October 27, 2008 at: http://www2.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.5029/FocusNote_49.pdf.
PRESS RELEASE: CGAP: Can Islamic Finance Go Microfinance?
MICROCAPITAL STORY: General Electric Consumer Finance (GE Money), based in London, supports FINCA Village Banking, based in Washington DC, with USD 1.5 million Grant
General Electric Consumer Finance (GE Money) has made a three-year commitment worth USD 1.5 million to support FINCA’s (Foundation for International Community Assistance) Village Banking Campaign. Founded in 1984, FINCA’s Village Banking aims to reach 1 million of the world’s lowest-income entrepreneurs by the end of 2010. During 2008, FINCA will use the first USD 500,000 installment of the funding to expand in Middle East, Africa, Eurasia and Asia.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: HSBC Ammanah partners with Islamic Relief to Launch Microfinance Program in Pakistan
HSBC Amanah, the global Islamic banking division of HSBC group, has partnered with Islamic Relief, an international development and relief organization, to offer Islamic Microfinance in Pakistan. Islamic microfinance, just like Islamic banking, will provide financial services to devout Muslims in accordance with the Shariah, the Islamic law. HSBC Amanah will provide both training and funding for Islamic Relief’s microfinance projects, starting in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
PRESS RELEASE: Microfinance in the Mediterranean Study Released at Event Held by Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) and Sanabel Microfinance Network
Source: European Union.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: BMCE Bank of Morocco Lends $12.5m to Microfinance Institution (MFI) FONDEP
Moroccan microfinance institution (MFI) FONDEP is to receive a loan of MAD 100 million (USD 12.5 million) from commercial bank BMCE (Banque marocaine du commerce extérieur) of Morocco, with a USD 3 million guarantee split between Grameen-Jameel Pan-Arab Microfinance Ltd, a for-profit venture that provides capacity building and financing to Arab MFIs, and the Grameen Foundation’s Growth Guarantee. It is the largest leveraged commercial transaction for a Moroccan MFI.
WHO’S WHO IN MICROFINANCE: The Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA)
Founded by microfinance pioneer Dr. John Hatch in 1985, The Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) has been active in the global microfinance industry since its first microcredit program in El Salvador for low-income women in 1986. Operating in 21 countries with 2006 total assets of USD 252 million and a stated commitment to serving the poorest of the poor, FINCA relies on its grounding in Hatch’s Village Banking methodology, which dictates that local customers are the most knowledgeable regarding the management of their own assets. The model calls for cooperatives of 30 to 60 people to form around their mutual interest in pooling funds for inter-member loans and other financial services. Cooperatives gain access to additional capital by borrowing from financial institutions as a group, and then on-lending the funds to individuals, collateral-free.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s (OPIC) Middle East Conference to Include Microfinance
ACCESS TO OPPORTUNITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST
MAY 5-7, 2008, KEMPINSKI HOTEL ISHTAR, DEAD SEA, JORDAN
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a self-funded US government agency with 2006 total assets of USD 6.3 million promoting economic development and US investment in overseas markets since 1971, will hold a conference “to highlight investment opportunities in the [Middle East], encourage the formation of joint ventures and partnerships between US and local businesses, and facilitate support for new investments,” according to the conference web site. The first day of the two-day conference will include a session entitled “Access to Capital: Microfinancing to SMEs,” which will consist of presentations from managers of Middle Eastern microfinance institutions (MFIs). In attendance will be investment experts, US firms investing in the Middle East, US government officials, and financial institutions operating in the region. Countries to be featured in the conference include Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, the West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: Forbes’ Special Feature on Private Investment in Microfinance Includes Top 50 Microfinance Institutions
Forbes, a American business and financial news magazine, presented the list of top 50 microfinance institutions (MFIs) of 2007 in its special feature on the private investment in the microfinance industry.