The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, recently agreed to loan the National Bank of Iraq (NBI) USD 10 million for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and related advisory services. NBI is a commercial bank owned by Jordan’s Capital Bank Group.
NBI Chairman Bassem Khalil Al-Salem stated the loan will help his institution
From 
the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP): On the 22nd and 23rd September 2021, the Selection Committee for the European Microfinance Award 2021 (EMA 2021) on “Inclusive Finance & Health Care” chose the three finalists who will go on to compete for the EUR 100,000 (USD 117,000) prize: CRECER IFD from Bolivia, Dreamlopments Limited from Thailand and Fonkoze from Haiti.
Access to quality health care underpins everything else: it allows education to play its role in opening new opportunities; it allows people to earn, invest and employ others; it lets groups and societies prosper. But paying for health care is the single biggest
POSRocket, a Jordan-based provider of point-of-sale (POS) technology, recently raised USD 5.1 million in an equity round led by Algebra Ventures, an Egypt-based firm that invests in technology, and Sanad Fund for MSME, a Luxembourg-based vehicle targeting micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The other participating investors are
Microfund for Women (MFW), a nonprofit microfinance institution in Jordan, recently partnered with MoneyPhone, a Netherlands-based financial technology (fintech) company, to enhance its digital offerings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Bdour Al-Hyari, the director of strategic planning and business development at MFW, cited the “opportunity for us to introduce new digital services, such as
Google Pay, a service of US-based technology firm Google, recently partnered with money transfer companies Western Union and Wise to allow Google Pay users in the US to send money to individuals in India and Singapore. The service does not allow payments from other countries to the US or payments to or from businesses. However,
Tunisia-based Arab Tunisian Lease (ATL) recently secured a senior loan of EUR 10 million (USD 12 million) from Sanad Fund for MSME, a Luxembourg-domiciled investor in lenders to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), for
(This 
is the companion feature to an earlier piece on a European Microfinance Week conversation on serving refugees.)
Swati Mehta Dhawan of Germany’s Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt argued for building up legal frameworks to allow forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) to escape “infinite limbo” by accessing documentation for identification purposes, working legally and integrating with host populations. She offered the example of a person displaced to Kenya, who has been there for 15 years without being allowed to work. Hans-Martin Zademach, also of Catholic University, noted many are “stuck in survival mode,” more in need of a reliable income source than methods for managing money.
However, Ms Dhawan explained that FDPs’ needs for financial services often increase as years go by. A common trajectory is
The Jordan-based, nonprofit Al Hussein Fund for Excellence and the Sanad Fund for MSME, a Luxembourg-domiciled investor in micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), recently partnered to give young business owners in the Middle East and North Africa no-cost access to a course called “How to Start and Manage a Successful Business.” The course, which was delivered in Arabic on the Edraak online education platform, “comprises
In spite of the growth of the Islamic finance sector, which promotes loans, insurance and other services that comply with the religious laws known as Shariah, financial inclusion rates in predominantly Muslim countries remain low. In collaboration with Tamweelcom, a microcredit institution in Jordan, the authors analyze how the following factors influence people’s decisions to borrow:
The Sanad Technical Assistance Facility, which is affiliated with the Luxembourg-domiciled Sanad Fund for MSME (Micro-, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise), has collaborated with the Egyptian Credit Bureau, also known as I-Score, to build an Agricultural Credit Evaluation and Risk Assessment System (ACERS). I-Score will implement this “web-based credit assessment and scoring tool,” with the goal of
The Netherlands Development Finance Company, which also is known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently loaned USD 5 million to the microfinance institution (MFI) Vitas Palestine. FMO sourced the funding from MASSIF, an investment vehicle it manages for the Dutch government that is meant to
The Netherlands Development Finance Company, which is also known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently disbursed a loan to Guinea-based microfinance group Compagnie Financiere Africaine (COFINA) to be distributed to its subsidiaries in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. Of the loan proceeds, EUR 7.5 million (USD 8.2 million) is flowing to COFINA Senegal, and EUR 5 million (USD 5.5 million) is going to COFINA Côte d’Ivoire, which is
By Chloe Gueguen, Julia Hakspiel and Sabal Majali of the Arab Women’s Enterprise Fund; published by the SEEP Network; April 2020; 37 pages; available at https://seepnetwork.org/files/galleries/AWEF_DFS_Practitioner_Learning_Brief_compressed.pdf
Despite efforts to boost digital financial services (DFS) and otherwise increase the financial inclusion of women, gender inequality remains high in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This paper addresses several
The Sanad Fund for MSME, a Luxembourg-domiciled investor in micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), recently issued a loan of USD 10 million to Fondation Arrawaj de la Finance Inclusive, a Moroccan microfinance institution
This is a summary of a paper published by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), July 2019, 87 pages, available at https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/The-Digital-Lives-of-Refugees.pdf
Mobile technology in general, as well as mobile network operators in particular, are becoming increasingly important to the delivery of aid to populations in crisis. This report addresses the access to, use of, and barriers to mobile technology among refugee populations.
The authors conducted 3,000 face-to-face and telephone interviews as well 55 focus group discussions with refugees from Jordan, Rwanda and
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED. NEW DATES HAVE NOT BEEN ANNOUNCED. The event had been scheduled for March 10 – 11, 2020.
Themed “Client Centricity: The Road to Greater Financial Inclusion,” the 15th Sanabel conference will showcase the experiences of financial service providers (FSPs) as they strive to focus more on client needs. While the complete agenda has not yet been released, the session tracks include: (1) Human-Centered Design:
At
Friday’s session on gender and financial inclusion during European Microfinance Week, Enrico Pini of the European Investment Bank (EIB) argued that, “It’s smart business,” to boost opportunities for women. Such is the motivation for EIB’s SheInvest program, which is scheduled to mobilize EUR 1 billion (USD 1.1 billion) to invest in entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, digital inclusion and climate-resilience efforts for African women.
Njideka Nwabueze of Nigeria’s Access Bank described her company’s product, “Beta,” which translates as “Good” in the local language. She said that many poor women use informal savings schemes because they do not believe that banks offer products that meet their needs. One of these women’s priorities is easy access to funds. Women who sell products in a market, for example, risk losing a good selling spot if they leave during the day to visit a bank. Also, bank lines can be very long.
This is why, six years ago, Access launched Beta, an interest-bearing savings account that leverages mobile money but is
The Dutch development bank, which is known by the acronym FMO, recently assembled a loan of USD 80 million for Banco Supervielle, a bank in Argentina, to finance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) amid the recession in Argentina. The loan is funded in equal parts by