The International Finance Corporation (IFC) announced it will invest USD 20 million in Bank Respublika, Azerbaijan’s fourth-largest private sector bank, to help increase lending to micro, small, and medium businesses in the country’s rural areas. [1]

Bank Respublika aims to more than double its lending to small businesses, and expects half of its loans to be in rural areas of Azerbaijan where there is significant unmet demand for financing.  IFC’s senior loan to the bank will support these goals. [1] Continue Reading »

The global Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI), a coalition of developing countries committed to financial inclusion, was launched in Nairobi, Kenya, with a USD 35 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s .[2] The AFI is based in Bangkok and managed on behalf of its members by the German government development organization Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), the recipient of the Gates grant. [1] Continue Reading »