MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ACEP Niger, ACFIME Borrow in Local Currency from Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation for Microfinance in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Luxembourg-based Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation recently announced it has issued a local-currency loan equivalent to EUR 762,000 (USD 756,000) in favor of Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) Niger. As of 2022,

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Incofin Sells 20% Equity Stake in ACEP Burkina to SIDI

Belgium’s Incofin Investment Management (Incofin IM) recently sold the 20-percent equity stake in Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) Burkina, a microfinance institution in Burkina Faso, that it had held through its Incofin CVSO fund. The buyer is Solidarité Internationale pour le Développement et l’Investissement (SIDI), a French social business that is

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ACEP Cameroon Borrows $2.2m in Local Currency from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation to Support Micro-, Small Enterprises

The microfinance institution Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) Cameroon has borrowed local currency approximately equivalent to USD 2.2 million from the Luxembourg-based Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation. Created in 1999, ACEP Cameroon focuses on the development of micro- and small enterprises (MSEs) via deposit, loan, transfer, insurance and mobile banking services. Its loan offerings include products for farming, enterprise and other purposes. The institution’s microinsurance services range from health and life cover to vehicle insurance. ACEP Cameroon

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Lends $2.2m in Local Currency to ACEP Burkina for On-lending to Micro-, Small, Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs)

The Luxembourg-based Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation has announced it lent local currency approximately equivalent to USD 2.2 million to the microfinance institution Agence de Credit pour l’Entreprise Privee (ACEP) Burkina. One of four members of the ACEP Group, ACEP Burkina provides financial services to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in urban regions of Burkina Faso. The institution was created in 2009 and

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FMO Loans $3.5m for Microfinance, SMEs Via ACEP Burkina Faso

The Netherlands Development Finance Company, which also is known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently disbursed a loan of EUR 3 million (USD 3.5 million) to Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) Burkina Faso to support its lending to microenterprises as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). FMO sourced the funding from

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ACEP International, BIO, I&P Creating ACEP Group to Help Microfinance Providers in Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Madagascar, Niger Transform into Digital Institutions

The recently formed ACEP Group has acquired controlling stakes in three microfinance institutions (MFIs), ACEP Burkina Faso, ACEP Madagascar and ACEP Niger; and ACEP Cameroun “is aiming to join” the group as well. The creators of ACEP Group are the Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) International, a private company whose ownership includes its co-founder Thierry Perreau; Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), a France-based investor in small and medium-sized enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa; and the government-owned Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, which is also known by its Dutch acronym BIO.

The goals of the group include to maintain the MFIs’ commitments to

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Loans $1.5m to ACEP Niger, VisionFund Rwanda, LAPO of Sierra Leone

The Luxembourg-based Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation has issued local-currency loans to three microfinance institutions (MFIs), approximately equivalent to the following amounts: USD 550,000 to ACEP Niger, an affiliate of the Agency for Private Enterprise Credit (ACEP) International; USD 540,000 to

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ACEP Burkina Borrows $2.6m from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation for Microlending

ACEP Burkina, one of the five members of ACEP International, has received a loan approximately equivalent to EUR 2.3 million (USD 2.57 million) from the Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, to support microlending in Burkina Faso. ACEP Burkina specializes in providing loans to micro- and small enterprises in urban and suburban areas. It was founded in 2012 as a partnership between Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P),

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ACEP Cameroun, Musoni Kenya Borrow Local-currency Equivalent of $3.7m from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation

The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently informed MicroCapital that it is extending three-year, local-currency loans equivalent to USD 2.5 million to Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) au Cameroun and USD 1.2 million to Musoni Kenya.

ACEP Cameroun was founded in 1999 with support from

SPECIAL REPORT: Clients Come Clean on Sneaking Contraception, Practitioners Move from Serving Women to Empowering Households as European Microfinance Week Closes

During the closing day of European Microfinance WeekEuropean Microfinance Week 2017, Imran Matin of the US-based nonprofit Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) stressed the importance of not just whether women will use financial services, but “what account ownership will translate into in terms of achievement.” Foreshadowing a theme of the session, he added that “intra-household dynamics is very important and also particularly difficult to measure.”

Bdour Al-Hyari of Jordan’s Microfund for Women (MFW) described a long-running insurance product offered by her microfinance institution (MFI). The coverage provides cash to clients who are hospitalized or have a family member who is. While health issues were a major cause of default in the past, women who got “hospital cash” from MFW reportedly repaid their loans at a rate of

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Incofin Funds Take Stakes in EDPYME Solidaridad of Peru, FIDES Bank of Namibia, ACEP-Burkina of Burkina Faso

The Rural Impulse Fund II (RIF II), a microfinance investment vehicle (MIV) managed by Incofin Investment Management (IM) of Belgium, has acquired an 8.2-percent equity stake in Peru’s Empresa de Desarrollo de la Pequeña y Micro Empresa (EDPYME) Solidaridad, a non-bank financial institution that is held by the nonprofit organization Caritas del Peru.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: PAIDEK of DRC, MicroLoan Foundation Zambia Borrow $1m from Grameen Crédit Agricole for Microfinance in Africa

The Luxembourg-based Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation recently announced it has issued a loan of approximately USD 550,000 to Programme d’Appui aux Initiatives de Développement Economique du Kivu (PAIDEK) of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and

MICROFINANCE BRIEF: UGAFODE of Uganda Borrows $1.1m in Local Currency from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation for Microfinance

The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently granted a loan in local currency equivalent to USD 1.12 million to the Uganda Agency for Development Limited (UGAFODE) to support its provision of “affordable financial services” in Uganda. UGAFODE, which was established in 1994 as an NGO, became a

SPECIAL REPORT: How Oikocredit Leveraged SAM (Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance) to Expand Its Risk-management Program

Since Yves Komaclo, Oikocredit2015, Dutch cooperative investor Oikocredit has offered a risk-management program for microfinance institutions (MFIs). Participating institutions have built action plans around efforts such as: (1) increasing their use of data from credit bureaux to reduce over-indebtedness; (2) adjusting loan officers’ workload and training to improve client service; and (3) surveying clients about product terms. When expanding the program to a new country, Oikocredit holds a workshop that is open to the entire sector to engage potential partners. From this pool of workshop attendees, those who demonstrate the greatest motivation and ability to make progress in risk management receive a package of consulting services lasting 18 to 24 months.

The program first was active in Benin, Ghana and Togo. As a result of Oikocredit’s sponsoring an event at the 2015 SAM in Dakar to increase awareness of its risk-management efforts, several institutions from other countries expressed

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sanadcom Launches to Serve SMEs in Jordan, Backed by Microfund for Women, GMS Ventures and Investments

Sanadcom for Business Finance, a lender to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Jordan, recently launched with two “anchor” investors: Microfund for Women, a Jordanian microfinance institution, and GMS Ventures and Investments, a subsidiary of Jordan’s GMS Holdings. Sanadcom has enjoyed “additional equity funding and support” from the Sanad Fund for MSME (micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises), a European investor in North Africa and the Middle East, and

SPECIAL REPORT: ADA’s Laura Foschi on Creating Value for SMEs at SAM in Ethiopia, October 2017

MicroCapital: How has SAM (Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance) evolved since its launch four years ago?

Laura Foschi: We held the first edition of SAM in 2013 in Arusha, Tanzania. Our goal was to align the annual meetings of three networks of African microfinance institutions: the Africa Microfinance Network (AFMIN), African Microfinance Transparency (AMT) and the Microfinance African Institutions Network (MAIN). We had conference sessions on the first day, the networks’ general assemblies on the second day and an Investor’s Fair on the third day. During the week, we realized the potential of SAM to become a major African inclusive finance event.

We decided to move the location each time with the aim of engaging both French-speaking and English-speaking regions and organizations. In 2015, we held the conference in Senegal, expanding it to include two days of conference sessions and a broader range of parallel events. We were pleasantly surprised to have our registrations double to over 500 people! Perhaps for the fourth edition we will move to North Africa or Southern Africa.

MC: How did you select Ethiopia for the 2017 SAM?

LF: In order to maintain Ethiopia’s strong economic growth, its large young population will need to achieve what we call “economic inclusion.” In order to address this challenge, the government of Ethiopia has prioritized both microfinance and

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Oxus Democratic Republic of Congo Opens New Branch, Increases Total Capital to $2.7m

Oxus Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a microfinance institution (MFI) that opened in the Democratic Republic of Congo in May 2012, recently raised an unspecified amount of funds to bring its total capital to USD 2.7 million.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Fund Manager Incofin Receives $1.3m Equity Investment from Gimv of Belgium

Incofin Investment Management (Incofin IM), a Belgian company that manages six microfinance funds, recently received a EUR 1 million (USD 1.29 million) equity investment from Gimv, a Belgium-based investment company.