It is reported that the First National Bank (FNB), a subsidiary of South African financial services provider FirstRand Limited, has announced the launch of a mobile money transfer service between South Africa and Zimbabwe.
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MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Survey: Two Thirds of Poor Insured South Africans Choose Funeral Microinsurance
A study by Ikapadata, a South Africa-based data collection company, indicates that 20 percent of South Africans with low incomes have formal health insurance while 66 percent have no formal insurance at all, excluding those who receive coverage from their employers.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Uganda’s Insurance Regulator, Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A), Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii) Seek to Expand Access to Microinsurance, Perhaps Mobile Money
The Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), Uganda’s insurance industry regulator, reportedly is partnering with Making Finance Work for Africa (MFW4A), a multilateral platform that aims to coordinate financial sector activities among African governments, and the Access to Insurance Initiative (A2ii), a global program hosted by Germany’s international cooperation agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), to create regulation that make access to microinsurance more efficient, mainly for low-income earners.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World Bank to Host Global Forum on Remittances 2013, May 20-23, 2013, Bangkok, Thailand
Event Name: Global Forum on Remittances 2013
Event Date: May 20-23, 2013
Event Location: United Nations Conference Centre, Bangkok, Thailand
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Briefing Note: The Landscape of Microinsurance in Africa 2012” by Michael J. McCord, Roland Steinmann and Molly Ingram; published by GIZ and Munich Re Foundation; 2012; 11 pages
By Michael J. McCord, Roland Steinmann and Molly Ingram; published by Deutche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and Munich Re Foundation; 2012; 11 pages; available at: http://www.microinsurancecentre.org/resources/documents/doc_download/918-briefing-note-the-landscape-of-microinsurance-in-africa-2012.html
This report presents an analysis of the status and characteristics of the microinsurance industry in Africa.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Incofin’s Rural Impulse Fund II Loans $2.6m to Kenya Women Finance Trust, Incofin Investment Management to Finance Technical Assistance Project for AB Bank Zambia
The Kenya Women Finance Trust (KWFT), a Kenyan deposit-taking microfinance institution (MFI), recently received a EUR 2 million (USD 2.6 million) loan from Incofin’s Rural Impulse Fund (RIF) II, a Belgian microfinance investment vehicle (MIV).
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Compuscan Leads Credit Awareness Training for Bank, Microfinance Institution Staff in Rwanda
The Compuscan Academy, a South African financial services training provider affiliated with credit bureau Compuscan, is currently leading a three-month credit awareness training for 160 bank and microfinance institution (MFI) representatives in Rwanda.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Government of Angola to Invest $2b in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
Making Finance Work for Africa, a partnership established in 2007 to facilitate financial sector development among African governments and the private sector, recently announced that the government of Angola is investing EUR 1.5 billion (USD 2 billion) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through lending at subsidized interest rates, tax rebates and support for the technology sector.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nigeria Chapter of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Federation of Business Women Entrepreneurs (FEBWE) Launched to Boost Cross-Border Entrepreneurship
The Nigerian Chapter of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Federation of Business Women Entrepreneurs (FEBWE) has been launched with the objective of promoting and facilitating trade by women-owned enterprises in the sub-Saharan region.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Works With African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank to Plan Expansion to Support Emerging Arab Democracies
In a recent statement, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based development finance institution, announced that it has signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the African Development Bank (AfDB), a multilateral financial institution based in Tunisia, and the Islamic Development Bank, a development finance institution based in Saudi Arabia, to outline how the institutions would cooperate in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean region as EBRD extends its operation in the region to support the emerging Arab democracies [1].
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Tuninvest-Africinvest Announces Close of Maghreb Private Equity Fund III, Investing in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt
The Tuninvest-Africinvest Group, a Tunisia-based private equity company that invests in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), recently announced the closing of its Maghreb Private Equity Fund III (MPEF III) with approximately EUR 96 million (USD 134 million) in capital commitments.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: International Finance Corporation (IFC) Capitalization Fund, Africa Capitalization Fund (ACF) to Invest $10m in NBS Bank of Malawi for Lending to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, has announced that two of the funds it manages, the IFC Capitalization Fund and the Africa Capitalization Fund, will invest a total of USD 10 million in equity in Malawian commercial bank NBS Bank (formerly the New Building Society).
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EU, UN Urge African Governments to Reach Out to Marginalized Women in Rural Areas with Microfinance, Securing of Property Rights
At a recent meeting in Rwanda on gender-responsive budgeting held in conjunction with the European Union and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), African governments were urged to reach women in rural areas through microfinance schemes and otherwise involving women in financial services.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: United Nations (UN) International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Loans $90m to Tanzanian Government to Boost Rural Microfinance, Private Sector Development
The International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD), an agency of the United Nations, recently announced a USD 90 million loan to the Tanzanian government to strengthen access to finance in rural areas and to promote private sector development through its “Marketing Infrastructure, Value Addition and Rural Finance Support Program”. The loan agreement was signed in Rome by Kanayo F Nwanze, the President of IFAD and Mustafa Mkulo, the Tanzanian Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG) Finds Microfinance Operations of Major Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) Have Difficulty in Reaching Very Poor People
The Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG), a network of evaluators of multilateral development banks (MDBs), has published a report that finds that the microfinance operations of MDBs have difficulty in reaching very poor borrowers.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Uganda’s Microfinance Support Centre Limited (MSC) Moves to Recover Unpaid Loans from SACCOs
Uganda’s Microfinance Support Centre Limited (MSC), a government outfit that supports savings and credit cooperative organizations (SACCOs) in the country, has hired unnamed officials to recoup unpaid loans from SACCOs in northern Uganda.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Ugandan Government Orders Release of $26m to Aid Rural Poor through Microfinance
The government of Uganda has ordered the release of UGX 60 billion (USD 26 million) to meet more of the demand by poor people in rural areas for financial services.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Social Development Fund of Gambia to Provide $1m from Entrepreneur Promotion and Microfinance Development Project to Non-Bank Financial Institutions
The nonprofit Social Development Fund of Gambia recently announced that the microfinance scheme of the Entrepreneur Promotion and Microfinance Development Project (EPMDP), a microfinance scheme established by the African Development Bank and the Government of Gambia, will create a microcredit fund of GMD 40 million (USD 1 million) for funding non-bank financial institutions in Gambia.