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Friday’s closing session of European Microfinance Week, representatives of Luxembourg-based MyBucks, US-based Opportunity International and India-based MicroSave argued about the risks and rewards of digital finance services. Vicki Escarra, the CEO of Opportunity International, said, “What we’ve done over the past five years to get to very rural areas is to use these digital channels.… To focus on women in Africa – not just women, but women living in
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SPECIAL REPORT: Evolving Regulations Obscure the Future of Microfinance in Myanmar
Paul Luchtenburg, who serves as coordinator for the UN Capital Development Fund in Myanmar, described several of the contrasts in the microfinance industry in Myanmar at European Microfinance Week Thursday. Five years into civilian rule, Mr Luchtenburg says “I’ve never seen a government work so hard. You go to a meeting and the results go up the leadership chain that night…. There’s this rapid push for development.” To accept deposits, institutions must pay at least 10 percent per year and be deemed “sustainable” by the government. However, lending rates are capped at 2.5 percent per month, a level that all of the panelists agreed was too low, especially for serving rural areas. Rommel Caringal, the CEO of the local unit of US-based VisionFund, said, “The inconsistency is causing big problems, but
SPECIAL REPORT: Fostering South-South Knowledge Exchange: Solar Home Systems in Bangladesh
On this first day of European Microfinance Week conference sessions, three participants described their visits to Bangladesh to learn how low-income families there have financed purchases of home solar systems. Tesfaye Befekadu, the general manager of Ethiopia’s Harbu Microfinance Institution, explained, “The exposure visit opened my mind to green microfinance…. I came back from Bangladesh with a lot of knowledge. I collected the managers, and we exchanged information and immediately decided this idea should go to the Board of Directors. Then I asked the Board to explain it to the shareholders.… I can say that all levels of the organization, down to the clients, own this program.” In the year since the visit, Harbu has delivered
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: International Development Research Centre, Alliance for Financial Inclusion Partnering to Promote Knowledge Sharing on Financial Inclusion
The Canadian government’s International Development and Research Centre (IDRC) and Malaysia-based Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), recently signed a three-year partnership with the goal of “develop[ing] new knowledge and foster[ing] peer learning on financial inclusion” among AFI’s 123 members which include financial regulators and institutions in approximately 90 developing countries.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Goodwell Disburses Convertible Loan to “Innovative Microfinance Limited” for Expansion in Rural Ghana
Through its Goodwell Microfinance Development Company (MDC) III Fund, Goodwell Investments recently issued a convertible loan of undisclosed amount to Ghanaian microfinance institution (MFI) Innovative Microfinance Limited (IML), which provides credit, savings products, financial education, business development training and environmental advisory services to low-income individuals and microenterprises.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nepalese Microfinance Institutions Invest in Nepal Finsoft to Develop MIS Software
A group of Nepalese microfinance organizations is investing in Nepal Finsoft Limited, an information technology (IT) company based in Kathmandu, to develop a banking management information system (MIS) the thirty-four institutions hope will provide them with “increased efficiency and capacity to serve clients [and] lower overall costs of the infrastructure shared by all participating financial institutions.”
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Asian Development Bank, Citigroup to Facilitate Up to $100m in Local Currency Loans for MFIs in Asia
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), a 67-member development finance institution headquartered in the Philippines, and Citigroup, a financial services corporation based in the US city of New York, recently announced the intention to facilitate up to USD 100 million in local-currency loans for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Asia under the Microfinance Risk Participation and Guarantee Program.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bangladeshi Farmers to Receive Microloans via Credit Cards Arranged by CARE Bangladesh, DAM, mPower, USAID
The Agricultural Extension Support Activity (AESA) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is implemented by the Bangladesh-based nonprofit Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), is piloting an initiative to provide smallholder farmers with loans via bank cards.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: GSMA Facilitates Launch of Interoperable Mobile Money Services in Madagascar
The Groupe Special Mobile Association (GSMA), a membership organization of 800 telecoms operating under the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) standard, recently announced that all of the mobile operators present in Madagascar- Airtel Money, mVola and Orange Money- will make their services interoperable across the country.
SPECIAL REPORT: Rajnish Dhall of Micro Housing Finance Corporation, Mark van Doesburgh of Triple Jump Preview European Microfinance Week Session on Micromortgages, More
MicroCapital: How does housing finance differ from traditional microfinance?
Rajnish Dhall: In India, traditional microloans usually are: (1) sized less than USD 1,000; (2) targeted for productive assets; (3) priced at around 22 percent per year; (4) repaid within less than a year or two; and (5) carry a group guarantee in lieu of collateral. In contrast, the micromortgages that Micro Housing Finance Corporation (MHFC) offers first-time homebuyers: (1) average about USD 8,000 in size; (2) carry interest rates of about 12.5 percent per year; (3) usually have a term of 15 years; (4) are individual rather than group-based; and (5) most importantly, are secured with the home as collateral. While the audience is quite similar, the products are almost at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Mark van Doesburgh: The MicroBuild Fund (MBF) we manage for Habitat for Humanity
MICROFINANCE PUBLICATION ROUND-UP: Role of Impact Investing in Achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals; Microfinance Investment Vehicle Survey; Lessons from Tanzania’s Digitization Efforts
“Achieving The Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Impact Investing;” published by The Global Impact Investing Network; September 12, 2016; 9 pages; available at https://thegiin.org/knowledge/publication/sdgs-impinv
This report profiles impact investors that have leveraged the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the following purposes: (1) as a framework to communicate their social impact goals; (2) to develop new or realign existing investment strategies and; (3) to attract capital from private investors that are new to impact investing.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Sankalp Africa Summit, February 23-24, 2017, Kenya School of Government, Nairobi
Event Name: Sankalp Africa Summit 2017: Spurring the Entrepreneurship Economy
Event Date: February 23 – February 24, 2017
Event Location: Kenya School of Government, Lower Kabete, Nairobi City, Kenya
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: 2016 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Project Report; by John Villasenor, Darrell West, Robin Lewis
“The 2016 Brookings Financial and Digital Inclusion Project Report Advancing Equitable Financial Ecosystems;” by John D. Villasenor, Darrell M. West and Robin J. Lewis; published by the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution; August 2016; 146 pages;
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MicroSave Launches Telephone-Based, Online ePaathshala School for Microfinance Institution Staff, Clients
MicroSave, a for-profit consulting company based in India, recently launched ePaathshala, an educational program for both staff and clients of financial institutions.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Seed Africa Symposium, September 28-29, 2016, Nairobi, Kenya
Event Name: Seed Africa Symposium: From Innovation to Imitation – Replicating Successful Business Models for Green Growth and Sustainable Development
Event Date: September 28-29, 2016
Event Location: Safari Park Hotel, Thika Road, 00100 Nairobi, Kenya
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fusion Microfinance Raises $24m in Equity from Creation Investments, GAWA, BIO, Oikocredit as Incofin Exits
Fusion Microfinance Private Limited, an Indian non-banking financial company, has raised
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IFMR Investment Managers Raising Third Debt Fund, IFMR FImpact Medium Term Microfinance Fund
The Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) Investment Managers, a unit of India-based IFMR Trust Group providing investment management services in asset classes that impact the financially excluded, is seeking to raise INR 1 billion (USD 15 million) for a debt fund called IFMR FImpact Medium Term Microfinance Fund to invest exclusively in microfinance firms.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Dual Return Funds Managed by C-Quadrat Loan $34m to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Latin America, South Asia
During July 2016, Austria’s C-Quadrat Asset Management GmbH issued loans worth the equivalent of USD 34 million to unspecified microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Costa Rica, Ecuador, India, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Sri Lanka.