A number of manufacturing bankruptcies and recent relaxations of credit controls by the Chinese government may allow microcredit lenders to emerge to play a bigger part in the Chinese Economy, according to The China Daily. With the recent bankruptcies by small to medium manufacturing companies in the Pearl River Delta and the jobs lost as a result of this, financial experts are looking to the restrictions on lending in China. Experts including Wu Xiaoling, vice-chairwoman of the Financial and Economic Committee of the National People’s Congress and Xu Xiaonian, a professor of economics and finance at the China Europe International Business School both spoke recently about the importance of private financing for enterprises as opposed to large, state-run banks. Continue Reading »

The Finance Minister of India stated that the North Eastern region of India would receive an increased flow of credit from the central government, addressing the Special Summit on Banking, Industries and Credit Issues in the North Eastern Region organised by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) at Vigyan Bhavan. The Finance Minister, Chidambaram, stated that although the North Eastern region is not currently receiving enough credit, it will begin to. The Summit was attended by the Minister of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), the deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, the Chairman of the State Bank of India and other top officials of line ministries and financial institutions. Continue Reading »

India Post will soon disburse microcredit sanctioned by The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in the Northeast and eight additional states of India, building on a scheme operating in Tamil Nadu in the Southeast. The funds are sanctioned as microloans to Self-Help Groups, or SHGs which, according to Professor Annuppalle, of Sri Venkateswara University in India, is a “small voluntary association of poor people, preferably from the same socio-economic background.” While SHGs encompass both male and female participants, the funds will be distributed to female SHGs only. Continue Reading »

USD 600,000 was raised by a cooperation between Opportunity International, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Caster Foundation, and Rotary Clubs throughout the USA and Canada. The fundraising effort was initiated with an offer by the Gates Foundation to match and double funds raised for Opportunity International, up to a total donation of USD 400,000 by the Foundation. Thirty-six Rotary Clubs in and around San Diego, as well as clubs in Calgary, Canada and The Caster Foundation, joined this initiative to raise a total of USD 600,000 for Opportunity International, a network of partners and institutions that facilitate microfinance, microinsurance and microsavings globally. Bink Cook, co-chair of San Diego Rotary’s Microcredit Committee spoke of Rotary’s motivation to get involved saying that this was, “an ideal opportunity to collaborate in a major program with global impact“. The funds will be distributed by Opportunity International as microloans through their lending facilities in Ghana, where they have 117 thousand active clients and have already loaned USD 98.8 million. Opportunity International currently operates in ten African countries. Continue Reading »

Koshi Yomuti, a six year old microfinance project whose name means “banking under a tree” will become Namibia’s first commercial micro finance bank with seed capital of Euro 2.3 million from the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), a federally owned international cooperation enterprise based outside of Frankfurt, Germany. The grant money will be used to create the first purely micro finance banking institution in Namibia upgrading the Koshi Yomuti/Ohangwena Pilot Project to a commercial microfinance bank. The bank will be owned by foreign investors, including KfW (on behalf of GTZ), FIDES (Switzerland), Swiss Microfinance Holding (Switzerland), Incofin (Belgium), and Investisseur et Partenaire pour le Development (France). Continue Reading »

Blue International Micro Finance Bank Limited (BIMFB), a newly created Nigerian micro finance bank, has begun operations in Nigeria, which will be using its capital base of N3 billion (USD 25 million) to provide micro loans to Nigerians. Blue Intercontinental Micro Finance Bank Limited is a partnership between International Bank Plc and Blue Financial Services of South Africa. This N3 billion (USD 25 million) is N2 billion (USD 17 million) over what is required by the Central Bank of Nigeria for starting up a microfinance bank in the country, and is reportedly the first to begin operations throughout different states in Nigeria, according to Business Day. Continue Reading »