The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), a Luxembourg based microfinance fund has agreed to lend EUR 5 million to TTK Banka A.D. Skopje (TTK), a commercial bank based in Skopje, Macedonia as part of a loan agreement to help TTK further expand its outreach to micro and small entrepreneurs in the Republic of Macedonia. In a news release found on the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management website, Nikolche Petkoski, a member of the Board of Directors at TTK said that the loan, which would help TTK to support and increase access to finance for micro and small businesses in Macedonia, was particularly important during the present ‘times of economic uncertainty’. Continue Reading »

At a confirmation hearing before the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, US Secretary of State designate Hilary Clinton, while speaking briefly about President-elect Barack Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, implied that microfinance would be an important part of the Obama administration’s agenda. Senator Clinton noted that Ann Dunham had worked on microfinance in Indonesia and that she had been scheduled to attend a microfinance forum at a United Nations conference in Beijing in 1995, which Ms. Clinton attended. Ms. Dunham, however, could not make it to the conference as she was diagnosed with cancer that eventually claimed her life few months after the conference. MicroCapital recently reported on Ann Dunham’s work as a researcher and practitioner of microfinance in Indonesia and her philosophy on the empowerment of women as a means to address poverty. Hilary Clinton also expressed similar sentiments at the hearing where she stated how, through her work on microfinance around the world, she had ‘seen firsthand how small loans given to poor women to start small businesses can raise standards of living and transform local economies’. Continue Reading »

Local Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) and Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Benin which were subcontracted by the Government-run ‘Microloans to the Poorest’ program have been accused of taking bribes from their borrowers, according to a press release found on IRIN News. The Government-run program, which operates through five partner banks, provides loans up to a maximum of 60 US dollars to borrowers in Benin. No information on the partner banks involved in this program is available. These partner banks disburse loans to borrowers through local MFIs and NGOs which interface with the borrowers and serve as loan intermediaries. Loan payments from borrowers are also collected by these intermediaries and remitted back to the partner banks which lend them. The press release quoted Mr. Aboubacar Aboudou, the first director of the Government-run program, as saying that a lack of oversight coupled with the rapid growth of the program led to hiring of several ‘unscrupulous intermediaries’ to process loans. Mr. Aboudou stated that these intermediary organizations squandered funds and ‘made the poor even poorer’. The program’s current director, Komi Koutche has called for step to eliminate these intermediaries. No information is available on which local MFIs were involved in these fraudulent activities. Continue Reading »

Fidelity Bank Plc, a commercial bank based in Nigeria has forged a partnership with the Nigerian-German Business Group (NGBG) to host a business forum on ‘Funding MicroFinance Banks’ on January 15^th, 2009 in Lagos, Nigeria. According to a press release found on NigerianBulletin.com, this partnership between Fidelity Bank and NGBG is intended to facilitate the entry of the Dutch microfinance organization, OikoCredit International into the Nigerian market. The press release stated that the CEO of Oikocredit International, Mr. Tor Gull, would lead other prominent experts in microfinance at the business forum to discuss ways to ‘shore up the capacity’ of Nigeria’s microfinance banks. The discussion would also unveil OikoCredit’s plan of expansion in Nigeria. According to the release, OikoCredit would set up a regional office in Nigeria and serve as a forum of exchange between its officials and key players in Nigeria’s small and medium enterprise sector, cooperative societies, microfinance and regulatory authorities. No further detail on the event or its participants is currently available. Continue Reading »

Azerdemiryolbank of Azerbaijan received a 12-month loan worth USD 3 million from the ING Bank of the Netherlands. According to a press release on Trend Capital, the loan would support microfinance businesses in Azerbaijan. The release quoted Mr. Yusif Jabbarov, the Vice-Chairman of the Bank, as saying the stated loan was the first cooperation in micro-crediting between a Dutch bank and an Azerbaijani lending agency. Continue Reading »

Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), an International Development Organization founded in Bangladesh announced the launch of the BRAC Africa Loan Fund to provide microfinance loans to poor borrowers in Tanzania, Uganda and Southern Sudan. In a press release found on PRNewswire, BRAC announced that it has raised USD 62.6 million of capital towards the loan fund. The release stated that the Africa Loan Fund would provide long-term, local currency funding that would enable BRAC to scale up its microfinance operations to reach over 700,000 borrowers through over 200 branches across the three East African countries. Continue Reading »

GLOBAL MICROFINANCE INVESTMENT CONGRESS 2009

MAY 18-20 2009, NEW YORK CITY, USA

The American Conference Institute, a global business intelligence provider headquartered in New York, and PlaNet Finance, a French non-profit company that assists microfinance institutions (MFIs), will host the second annual Global Microfinance Investment Congress in New York, USA. The three day event will be held from May 18th to 20^th 2009 in New York City. The event brings together professionals from diverse backgrounds – public and corporate pension funds, hedge funds, MFIs, venture capitalist firms, investment and commercial banks, insurance funds and technology funds and firms – to discuss future investments strategies for microfinance and sources of finance. Please refer the event website for a list of the organizations represented. Continue Reading »

The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), an autonomous fund administered by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), will provide up to USD 20 million in financing to the Emergency Liquidity Facility (ELF), a fund located in San Jose, Costa Rica. According to a press release on the IDB website, the funding would be used to help Latin American and Caribbean microfinance institutions ‘weather economic crisis and natural disasters’ and overcome liquidity shortages. Continue Reading »

ACCION International, a microfinance organization founded in 1961, has invested a total of USD 4.2 million in ParaLife, a Swiss microinsurance holding company and LeapFrog Investments, a USD 100 million microinsurance investment fund headquartered in Mauritius. In a press release found on Microfinance Gateway, Ms. Monica Baron, the principal director of ACCION’s Gateway Microfinance Innovation Fund, said that the investment by ACCION was aimed at moving microfinance ‘beyond credit’. The press release quoted Ms. Baron as saying the future of financial inclusion lay in offering the working poor a basic suite of all financial tools instead of providing only credit. In this regard, Ms. Baron mentioned that ACCION believed both ParaLife and LeapFrog Investments would be leaders for the industry, developing flexible, responsive insurance products that would meet the needs of a broad range of low income clients. Continue Reading »

The Association of Cambodian Local Economic Development Agencies (ACLEDA Bank), a Cambodian based Microfinance organization has received grant worth USD 850 thousand from the German Development Bank Kreditanstaltfür Wiederaufbau (KfW) to build a new Microfinance Training Center in Cambodia. In a press release found on the Phnom Penh Post, Mr. In Channay, the president of ACLEDA Bank said the funds would be used to meet operational costs of the training center and to provide short-term scholarships and fellowships to its students for a three year period. Active in all 24 provinces/towns of the Kingdom of Cambodia, the ACLEDA Bank has 220 branch offices with an asset base of USD 473 million, total loan portfolio of USD 315 million and 185, 492 active borrowers. Continue Reading »

Kings Microfinance Bank (KMFB), a Nigerian based microfinance provider announced that it has disbursed loans worth Naira 50 million, approximately equivalent to USD 367 thousand, to nearly 5000 Nigerians over the last several months. This announcement was made by Mr. Laide Adebayo, the Managing Director of KMFB during a chat with journalists at Lagos, Nigeria, according to a press release found on Vanguard – Nigeria. KMFB is one of the 815 organizations that have been licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to supply credit to the marginalized poor and thereby support the Nigerian Government in its efforts to address poverty and meet the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Originally founded as Maryland Community Bank, KMFB registered as a Microfinance Bank in January, 2008. KMFB does not report to the MIX Market, the microfinance information clearing house, nor has it published its financial data on its website. Hence information on its total assets, loan portfolio and client base is not available. Continue Reading »