Themed “Unlocking Digital Transformation, Investments and Trade Opportunities in Africa,” this event will encourage business deals in Africa, with content covering topics such as
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MICROFINANCE EVENT: International Conference on Inclusive Insurance (ICII); October 24-28, 2022; Kingston, Jamaica
The upcoming iteration of this event – the first in-person since 2019 – will include 26 sessions on the increasing role of insurance in developing markets. The first day features pre-conference workshops such as:
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Global SME Finance Forum; September 19-23, 2022; Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The Ninth Global SME Finance Forum will address the effects of digitalization on the financial sector, including the potential for digital transformation to facilitate “inclusive, sustainable, and responsible finance” for microenterprises as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The first day of the event offers
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 4th Global Takaful & Re-takaful Forum; August 24-26, 2022; Dubai, UAE
The purpose of this event is to share information about takaful – insurance that complies with Islamic law. The event combines a forum on the first day with workshops during the two following days. The forum will include sessions such as: (1) Foundations and Current Practices of the Takaful Industry; (2) Takaful Portfolios and Innovative Products; (3) Best Marketing Strategies; (4) Risk Management & Actuarial Services; and (5) Future Perspectives of Takaful.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Making Finance Work for Women Global Summit; May 24-25, 2023; Mumbai, India – NEW DATES AND LOCATION
The goal of this event is to find new ways to assist women in accessing financial services and thus economic empowerment. Although the detailed agenda has yet to be released, the 2020 virtual edition of the summit offered programming on topics such as the effect of world crises on low-income women, digitized wages, inclusive insurance, resilience, leadership and diversity, government-to-person (G2P) payments, gender-lens investing, and regulatory technology (regtech).
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Citibank Pakistan, National Institutional Facilitation Technologies Partner on Digital Financial Services for Retailers in Pakistan
National Institutional Facilitation Technologies (NIFT), a Pakistani payment system operator, and the local arm of US-based financial services provider Citigroup, recently announced a “referral arrangement” under which Citibank Pakistan will refer its clients to NIFT’s infrastructure for processing digital payment services. The deal will allow corporations to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FINCA Microfinance Bank, Millat Tractors Partner to Serve Farmers in Pakistan
Pakistan-based FINCA Microfinance Bank, a for-profit entity whose name derives from the US-based Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA International), recently announced a partnership with Pakistan-based Millat Tractors to increase the availability of machinery to farmers in the country. Under the new arrangement, customers of FINCA Pakistan are able to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: DFC, Citibank Invest $300m in Access Bank for SME Financing in Nigeria
The US government’s International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) recently deployed USD 280 million in favor of Nigeria’s Access Bank to support about 4,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a focus on women-owned and “climate-change focused” businesses. US-based Citibank is
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Pacific Insurance and Climate Adaptation Programme: Gender Equality and Social Inclusion Strategy,” Published by UNCDF
The authors of this paper note that the accessibility of climate- and disaster-risk financing and insurance instruments is growing globally and especially in the Pacific Island region. This region is particularly susceptible to climate risk because of factors such as
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Khushali Microfinance Bank, Sindh Graduates Association Partner on Financial, Vocational Education for Women in Rural Pakistan
Pakistan’s Khushali Microfinance Bank recently initiated a collaboration with Sindh Graduates Association (SGA), an organization mobilizing university graduates in the Pakistani province of Sindh, on a program intended to increase women’s living standards. In particular, the programme targets the female population in the Sindh village of Mirpurkhas with training in tailoring and financial topics such as how to use
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CreditAccess Grameen Seeking $50m in Debt from IFC for Financial Inclusion of Women in India
The World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) recently moved to lend as much as USD 50 million in the form of a three-year senior loan to CreditAccess Grameen, a unit of CreditAccess India. The objective of the loan is to boost enterprise lending to women who live in
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Strategic Impact Advisors (SIA) Launches Campaign to Boost Personal, Business Financial Literacy Among Spanish-speaking Women
US-based Strategic Impact Advisors (SIA) recently released a set of free resources to deliver financial education to women in Latin America, including 22 audio lessons spanning 1 to 4 minutes in length. The lessons mainly cover topics relating to digital financial services, including using
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) Annual Conference; September 13-15, 2022; Leesburg, Virginia, USA
Themed “resilient entrepreneurship,” this event will focus on how small and growing businesses (SGBs) across the globe are adapting to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and an otherwise changing world. The agenda includes topics such as climate change, sustainability, and how SGBs can plan for the future. Although the session titles for this year have not been released yet, sessions from last year’s iteration included “A Care-centered Economic Recovery: The Role of SGBs and Impact Investment” and “How Have We Co-created Gender-smart Accelerators that Actually Meet Female Founders’ Needs?”.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EBRD Launches GEFF Turkey With $56m Loan to TSKB for On-lending to Reduce, Adjust to Climate Impacts
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral development finance institution, is “supporting Turkey’s transition to an environmentally sustainable, low-carbon and climate-resilient economy” through the Green Economy Financial Facility (GEFF) Turkey. The loan package comprises funds from EBRD’s own resources as well as concessional financing from the Clean Technology Fund,
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 7th Annual Symposium of Nigerian Microfinance Platform; April 28, 2022; Abuja, Nigeria
The goal of this annual series of events is to bring together stakeholders in the Nigerian microfinance sector to discuss current issues in the field. The agenda for this year’s symposium includes the following topics: (1) Microfinance Banking in a Post-Pandemic Era: Financial Technology Options; (2) Improving Efficiency of Microfinance Banks through
MICROFINANCE EVENT: SOCAP22; October 17-20, 2022; San Francisco, California, USA
This event has been held each year since 2008. Although the 2022 agenda has not been announced yet, SOCAP21 included panels on topics such as: “The New Tech-touch Balance: How to Deliver Inclusive Fintech (Financial Technology) Solutions for Underserved Populations,” “Driving Social Impact by
SPECIAL REPORT: Christoph Pausch on the €100k European Microfinance Award Focusing on Women – Applications Are Open Until April 12
MicroCapital: Why was “Financial Inclusion that Works for Women” chosen as the topic of the 2022 Award?
Christoph Pausch (pictured below): Women ostensibly have been the focus of financial inclusion for decades. But the reality is that a focus on outreach – the number of women clients a financial provider serves – can obscure lack of progress in addressing the many barriers that women face. Increasingly, stakeholders in the sector realise that much more needs to be done, based on a comprehensive understanding of these barriers: including social norms as well as the diverse needs and aspirations of women clients, staff and partners of financial services providers. So, over the months leading up to the launch of this year’s Award, our team has worked with experts to design the guidelines, application forms and assessment criteria to capture what financial providers can do with a gender-focused strategy – not only to
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 3rd CIS Islamic Banking and Finance Forum; May 25-27, 2022; Baku, Azerbaijan
The organizers of this forum aim to promote Islamic finance in the nine-member countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Islamic finance is that which is compliant with Shariah law, such as by an investor sharing profit and loss rather than charging interest for a loan. The main event is on May 25, followed by a post-event workshop on May 26 and May 27. The topics on the agenda for the first day of the forum include takaful – Islamic insurance – as well as how Islamic