The EU’s European Investment Bank (EIB) recently agreed to a partnership with Vital Finance, a microlender in Benin, to support smaller businesses via a loan of EUR 4 million (USD 4.8 million). The wholesale loan, which is the first Vital Finance has taken from EIB, is to fund an estimated 77,000 retail loans, 70 percent of which are to go to female entrepreneurs. Vital Finance CEO Wakil Adjibi stated that the partnership with EIB
