The MasterCard Foundation, a private Canadian foundation that supports microfinance; CARE Canada, an international humanitarian organization; and the Aga Khan Foundation Canada (AKFC), a nonprofit organization that supports international development, recently announced that they are providing CAD 9 million (the equivalent of USD 8.8 million) to fund two new programs that aim to extend savings services to 900,000 residents of Tajikistan and Rwanda. Continue Reading »

Banco de Comércio e Indústria (BCI), an Angolan bank majority-owned by the Angolan government, recently launched a microcredit program that is expected to benefit 50,000 people across the country by 2012, the bank’s chairman, Adriano Silva, said. Continue Reading »

The Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), the microfinance information clearinghouse, recently released its third annual ranking of microfinance institutions (MFIs), The Mix Global 100. Continue Reading »

Advans Banque Congo, a microfinance institution (MFI) operated by Luxembourg-based Advans SA, recently met the Congolese central bank’s requirement of a minimum of USD 13 million in capital. The new capital was provided by existing shareholders Advans SA, the African Development Bank (AfDB), the German development bank KfW, and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). Continue Reading »

The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) has granted a license to Credit Reference Bureau Africa (CRBAfrica) in an effort to provide the banking sector with credit information sharing services. Continue Reading »

Letshego Holdings Limited, a sub-Saharan financial services provider, will soon finalize the sale of Letshego Guard and Letshego Guard Insurance Company to Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL), an insurance company based in Botswana, for BWP 57 million (the equivalent of USD 8.2 million). Letshego Holdings will reportedly sell the insurance-related subsidiaries so that it can direct its resources to its consumer lending program. The capital raised through the sale will allow Letshego Holdings to expand its lending activities in Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Uganda, and Zambia. Continue Reading »

According to a recent AngolaPress article, 262 youths in the southern Angola province of Cuene received microloans in 2009 from the “Angola Youth” microcredit program. Continue Reading »

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the MasterCard Foundation are partnering to award a grant of USD 16 million to Opportunity International, an international non-profit organization with a microfinance program headquartered in Malawi. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation website announces that the purpose of the grant is “to support the expansion of new delivery channels, savings and agricultural finance in Malawi, Ghana, and other African countries” [1]. Continue Reading »

In an effort to prevent fraud and keep customers informed, Satelite Microfinance Bank, a microfinance institution in Nigeria, has recently started using the Clickatell text-message alert system to notify customers when debit or credit activity is occurring on their accounts. Continue Reading »

A recent article in US-based Newsweek magazine entitled ‘Big Crisis, Small Help’ examines the importance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in mitigating crises in post-disaster environments. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank, has announced that it will make an equity investment of XOF 574.6 million, the equivalent of over USD 1.2 million, in MicroCred Senegal, a microfinance institution (MFI) located in Senegal that was founded by the MicroCred Group, an investment company based in France that is part of the PlaNet Finance Group. Continue Reading »

The Grameen Foundation, an independent non-profit organization, has announced a two-year initiative to assist African microfinance institutions (MFIs) in targeting and tracking clients using its poverty assessment tool, the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI). Continue Reading »

Professor Njuguna Ndungu, the Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), has announced that CBK will review the Micro Finance Act that came into effect in May of 2008. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank, and KfW Entwicklungsbank (KfW), a state-owned development bank based in Germany, have announced that they will establish microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Zambia and Senegal in 2010. Continue Reading »

A new piece of Egyptian legislation is expected to change the status of microfinance institutions (MFIs) from philanthropic organizations to commercial entities. The new microfinance law will grant customers of MFIs “access to commercial finance, transactional services support, [and] savings,” according to Aftab Ahmed the chairman of Citibank Egypt [1]. Continue Reading »

According to a new report from CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor) and the U.K.’s Department for International Development (DFID) entitled, ‘Banking the Poor via G2P Payments,’ existing government payment programs could bring many more poor people into the formal financial services system. Continue Reading »

The Microfinance Association (MA), an international membership organization for practitioners in the microfinance industry, has launched its Global Academy Program (GAP). Continue Reading »

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has provided a USD 6 million grant to Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), a pan-African bank with a network of over 500 branches in 27 countries. Continue Reading »