Partially through its Financial Institutions Growth Fund, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is paying an undisclosed sum to acquire a 6.7-percent stake in Equity Group Holdings, which has banking operations in Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. IFC and the UK government’s British International Investment (BII) also are each lending the group’s Equity Bank Kenya
Search Results for: Rwanda
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Lends $700k to LAPO SL for Microlending to Women in Sierra Leone
The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation has announced it lent approximately USD 700,000 to Lift Above Poverty Organization (LAPO) Microfinance Company SL, which is located in Sierra Leone, mainly serving women in rural areas. Its product lineup includes savings accounts as
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Resilient and Inclusive Financial Services Delivery During COVID-19,” Published by Toronto Centre
This paper examines the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on financial services by focusing specifically on financial inclusion in Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Zambia. The study explores changes in the “face-to-face (F2F) delivery of financial services” to groups traditionally underserved by the financial system, including “women, youths, small and medium enterprises, smallholder farmers and rural households.” The authors collected data via
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Impact Evaluation of Credit Guarantee Schemes in Agriculture,” Published by FAO
This paper reviews the impacts of multiple agricultural partial credit guarantee schemes (PCGSs), through which governments agree to absorb a portion of lenders’ losses on particular loans or loan portfolios. Governments often use PCGSs to de-risk financial institutions’ lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), especially as a countercyclical tool in times of
SPECIAL REPORT: SIDI Credits the SAM Investors’ Fair with Seeding Partnerships with Emerging MFIs in Burundi, Ethiopia, Mozambique
During the SAM (Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance – African Microfinance Week in French) in October, the 2021 Investors’ Fair will build on the 2019 Investors’ Fair, during which 120 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and 24 investors met in over 500 “speed-dating” sessions to explore whether they might be compatible partners. Of the MFIs, which represented 24 countries, about half were for-profit firms, and about half were organized as cooperatives or NGOs.
At the 2019 event, Altemius Millinga, the Managing Director of Tanzania’s Yetu Microfinance Bank, told MicroCapital that the Investors’ Fair “was the best part of the SAM because I was able to interact with investors, while at the same time sharing experiences immediately with other MFIs. The SAM gave me the opportunity to meet investors and make several preliminary proposals on funding; it was surely worth the investment!”
FEFISOL, an Africa-focused fund launched by SIDI, has had a presence at all four of the SAM Investors’ Fairs to date, and its representatives will return this year. The CEO of SIDI, Dominique Lesaffre, reports that his institution has leveraged the Investors’ Fair not only to develop relationships with “successful institutions such as Centenary Bank in Uganda or Kafo Jiguinew in Mali – with their massive social-financial outreach – but also with emerging MFIs such as Microbanco Confiança of Mozambique, Ishaka of Burundi and Buusaa Gonofaa of Ethiopia.”
Edmund Higenbottam, the Managing Director of Verdant Capital, also
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Microfinance Clients Facing the COVID-19 Crisis: From Findings to Action for MFIs;” by Mathilde Bauwin, Thu Hien Dao; Published by ADA
This paper explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on clients of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in terms of: “Which client segments are most affected? How are they coping with the situation? What are they doing to
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Africa SACCOs Week; April 25-27, 2022; Nairobi, Kenya
Africa SACCOs Week focuses on the development of Savings and Credit Co-Ooperatives (SACCOs) in Africa. A SACCO is a “member-based financial institution which operates on cooperative values, identity and principles, which include social responsibility, openness, honesty and caring for each other.” The theme of this year’s conference is
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IFC, FMO Loaning $50m to I&M Bank to Support SMEs in Kenya
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, along with Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch public-private partnership, recently announced a loan package of USD 50 million for I&M Bank Limited, which is owned by the Kenya-based I&M Group. The funds are intended to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Mwezi Nets Inaugural $500k Debt Investment from Build Fund of Bamboo Capital, UNCDF to Expand Access to Pay-as-you-go Solar Products in East Africa
Luxembourg-based Bamboo Capital Partners and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) recently partnered to create the Build Fund, whose first investment is a loan of USD 500,000 for
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Chipper Cash Raises $100m in Equity to Expand Cryptocurrency, Peer-to-Peer Services, Distribution of Payment Cards in Africa, UK
Chipper Cash, a US-based financial technology (fintech) firm active in Africa, recently raised USD 100 million in a Series C round of funding that it plans to use to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Ascent Rift Valley Fund II Raises $100m from Public, Private Investors for SMEs in East Africa
Kenya-based private equity firm Ascent Capital Africa recently secured USD 100 million at the first rolling close of its Ascent Rift Valley Fund II (ARVF II), surpassing the firm’s initial goal of USD 80 million. The funds will be invested in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in East Africa, targeting
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ECCAS, UNCDF Pursue Better Digital Remittances To, Within Central Africa
The 11-member Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) recently entered a two-year agreement through which they aim to expand “affordable and convenient access to digital remittances” for migrants transferring money to family members in their home countries. Priti Sinha, the Executive Secretary of UNCDF said,
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: DFC to Guarantee $10m in Borrowing by Trine to Invest in Solar Power in Latin America, Caribbean
The US government’s International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) recently agreed to cover half of potential losses on USD 20 million being raised by Trine AB, a Sweden-based solar investment platform, to support industrial solar ventures as well as mini-grids in Latin America and the Caribbean. This funding is sufficient to supply renewable energy to approximately 600,0
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Equity Bank Secures $144m from EIB, EU to Support Agriculture, SMEs in Kenya in Responding to COVID-19 Pandemic
Equity Bank (Kenya) Limited, a member of the Equity Bank Group, recently secured EUR 100 million (USD 120 million) from the EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB) for on-lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The EU Ambassador to Kenya, Simon Mordue, said,
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Equity Bank Kenya Secures $50m Nasira Loan Guarantee from FMO for COVID-19 Support to Agricultural MSMEs Led by Youth, Women
Equity Bank Kenya, a Kenya-based bank focused on micro-, small and medium-sized enterprise (MSME), recently signed an agreement with Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch development bank, whereby FMO’s Nasira Risk Sharing Facility will guarantee USD 50 million in lending by Equity Bank Kenya. This lending is meant to help agricultural MSMEs run by female and young entrepreneurs
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Gender Data in Financial Inclusion,” Published by CGAP’s FinEquity
This brief argues that research and analysis of sex-disaggregated data can allow stakeholders to accelerate the financial inclusion of women, bridging the gaps in women’s account ownership and finance for women-owned micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). Building on its 2018 Data Bootcamp on
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IKEA Foundation, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, USAID Invest $30m in Aceli Africa, Guarantor of Loans to Agricultural SMEs
The IKEA Foundation, an affiliate of the Sweden-founded IKEA group of furniture companies; the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) recently made a joint investment of USD 30 million in Aceli Africa, a US-based nonprofit. Aceli encourages lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the agriculture sector, typically by depositing
SPECIAL REPORT: Working with Central Banks to Extend Microfinance to Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs)
At 
Thursday’s European Microfinance Week session on serving forcibly displaced persons (FDPs), Mariam Jemila Zahari of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), a Malaysia-based network of financial regulators from 90 countries, described her organization’s work in Afghanistan, Mauritania and Rwanda. The Central Bank of Mauritania, for example, used AFI’s peer-learning model to