MICROCAPITAL STORY: India’s ACCESS Development Services and French NGO ACTED to Build Capacity of South Asian Microfinance Institutions with Funding from the European Commission

ACCESS Development Services (ACCESS) of India and the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED), an independent French non-governmental organization, will be working with 20 microfinance institutions (MFIs) from southern Asia with the goal of increasing economic co-operation between the region and Europe. Partially funded by the European Commission, this 18-month project will provide intensive capacity-building support, including development of business plans, best practice exchanges among regional MFIs and exposure to European banking standards. Other benefits are to include an opportunity to receive investment or loans from European companies and access to loan tracking software.

The project sponsors are now selecting twenty MFIs to participate from a pool of applicants from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Minimum requirements include that each MFI be operationally self-sufficient, work in rural areas and serve at least 2000 active clients with loans totaling at least EUR 400,000 (USD 630,000). Further requirements appear in this press release from ACCESS. Participating MFIs will buy into the effort at the cost of EUR 5,000 (USD 8,000).

ACCESS is a nonprofit whose donors include the Indian government, several arms of the nonprofit CARE and MFI network Friends of Women’s World Banking. Its ACCESS Microfinance Alliance unites 110 partner MFIs across India.

With over 2,000 staff members, ACTED participates in microfinance, emergency relief and health promotion projects across the developing world. In its 2005 annual report, it listed a budget of EUR 38 million (USD 51 million).

The European Commission, an institution of the European Union, is charged with implementing legislation adopted by the European Parliament and the European Council of Heads of State. The 2008 European Union budget totals EUR 128 billion (USD 204 billion).

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