The Support Organisation for Micro Enterprises Development (SOMED), a microfinance firm in the Kibaale District of Uganda was shut down in December last year while police claim they are investigating allegations of extortion, embezzlement and fraud. The company had been offering low-interest loans since 2004. Continue Reading »

Ron Grzywinski is a co-founder of Shorebank, America’s first community development bank and current Chair of the Board of Shorebank Corporation. Continue Reading »

The Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) will this year establish a Micro Credit Revolving Loan Scheme to support farmers. Individual applicants may qualify for loans ranging from a minimum of USD 72 to a maximum of 363, while groups could get between USD 145 and USD 727. Disbursements under the loan programme are due to begin in March. Continue Reading »

The Daily Star, the English language Bangladeshi newspaper, has accused microfinance institutions (MFIs) of encouraging loans sharks in disaster-stricken Bangladesh by stopping disbursement of fresh loans to victims in the cyclone-struck areas. The paper says that in the absence of MFIs, moneylenders have been charging high interest rates such as 15 to 20 per cent a month for lending money to small business people, such as poultry and vegetable farm owners or small shop owners, who are seeking much-needed financial assistance to help them get back on their feet. Continue Reading »

The Ghanian Government has disbursed USD 7.5 million (GHC 72 billion) in microfinance loans in the last three months, via its new agency, ‘The Micro Finance and Small Loans Centre’ (MASLOC). The agency manages the government fund designed make sustainable financial services available to individuals, co-operatives and other groups in grassroot communities in both urban and rural areas. Continue Reading »

The Kenyan Government has established a USD 16 million (Sh 1 billion) fund, called the Women’s Enterprise Fund, to support microfinance institutions (MFIs) that lend to women and women’s enterprises. At the launch, the government announced the allocation of the first USD 8 million (Sh 500 million), with USD 3.4 million (Sh 215 million) going to established MFIs and the rest being spent on fund administration and providing 210 constituencies with money to disburse at a local level. Continue Reading »

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given USD 34 million to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the specialized United Nations (UN) agency that deals with labour issues, to establish a microinsurance support initiative. Known as the ‘Microinsurance Innovation Facility’, it will be a one-off, five year project that provides grants and technical assistance to organizations working in microinsurance in developing countries. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and BP, a British-based multinational oil supplier have agreed to provide additional funding to the Micro Finance Bank of Azerbaijan (MFBA), so it can improve access to finance for micro and small enterprises in western Azerbaijan by expanding its branch network to the towns of Mingechevir and Gazakh and enhancing services in the Ganja branch. The funding will consist of a USD 1 million grant from BP and USD 2.3 million of the IFC and the MFBA’s own investments. BP’s contribution will be used to support international credit experts and develop local loan officers and branch managers. Continue Reading »

The Bank of Southern Sudan (BoSS) has launched an initiative to encourage more microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Southern Sudan. Called the ‘Microfinance Development Facility’, it will award a total of USD 1 million to successful MFI applicants in the first quarter of 2008. Continue Reading »

Three of the largest microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Bangladesh have suspended repayments of loan instalments for the surviving victims of Cyclone Sidr until 2008. Both the army chief, General Moeen U. Ahmed, and the media in the country have been lobbying for this suspension to be made by all MFIs working in the cyclone-struck region. Continue Reading »

“I really enjoy my job still after fifteen years,” says Marilou van Golstein Brouwers, the head of the Triodos division that runs its microfinance investments. She has been with the company since they began investing in microfinance, which was at first tried as means to promote sustainable development. “You have to tackle the divide between rich and poor if you are serious about sustainability,” she says. Continue Reading »

The central bank in Uganda, the Bank of Uganda (BOU), has warned that customers in the country’s Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) may lose their savings, according to reports in The Monitor, a daily newspaper in Kampala. The paper says the SACCOs, which are types of microfinance institution, are unsupervised and unregulated by the BOU, which “has now washed itself clean of any responsibility for the actions of such institutions” and will not be able to intervene or provide compensation for those clients that suffer. Continue Reading »

In an exclusive interview with MicroCapital, Marilou van Golstein Brouwers, Managing Director of Triodos Investment Management B.V., revealed that the firm will be launching a new private investor microfinance fund for the Belgian and Spanish markets in the first quarter of 2008. Continue Reading »

Clients that have lost money in collapsed microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l’Afrique Centrale – CEMAC) will have their money reimbursed. This was announced by the President of the Committee for the Facilitation of Training on Microfinance in CEMAC, Joseph Mbouombouo Ndam at the annual meeting of the region’s microfinance industry, organised by the Réseau des Institutions de Microfinance au Burundi (RIM). Continue Reading »

MICROFINANCE FORUM 2008

MARCH 27-28, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

Uniglobal Research, the European conference organiser, is hosting a two-day event on emerging trends in microfinance. Called the Microfinance Forum, the event will provide presentations and case studies, plus networking opportunities, for those financial institutions wishing to expand into microfinance. Continue Reading »

Five Talents, a Christian development organisation supporting microfinance, has joined a consortium of organisations from the Christian micro-enterprise development (CMED) industry to fund a micro-credit program in Southern Sudan. The village banking initiative in the Wau Diocese was started in 2005, providing adult education, local savings mobilization, business development training, small business development investing and rural micro-credit provision. Continue Reading »

The Association of Microfinance Institutions of Uganda (AMFIU), a trade association, is to audit the Savings and Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs) in the country, in light of the recent financial scandals that have dented the public’s faith in these microfinance organisations. Continue Reading »

GLOBAL MICROFINANCE INVESTMENT CONGRESS 2008

MAY 14-16, NEW YORK CITY, USA

Planet Finance, the French non-profit company that assists microfinance institutions (MFIs), and conference organiser, the American Conference Institute are hosting a three-day event on investing in microfinance. Called the Global Microfinance Investment Congress, the event convenes Microfinance Investment Vehicles (MIVs), Commercial Banks, Insurance Companies, Government Authorities and MFIs to discuss the future of the projected USD 250 Billion microfinance industry. This is the second event in a series, the first of which will be held in Paris on 21-22 January 2008, as reported by MicroCapital. Continue Reading »