» Currently browsing: Africa
Monday, May 11, 2009
K-Rep Bank, a commercial bank that directly targets low income clients in Kenya, received a Kshs 174.8 million (USD 2.2 million) investment from the African Development Bank (AfDB) during May 2009. This financial support will also include technical assistance related to capacity building. K-Rep Bank provides various banking services and specializes in loans to low income, small and micro entrepreneurs. K-rep plans to create 10,000 new jobs by 2011 of which 55 percent would involve women entrepreneurs. Continue Reading »
Friday, May 8, 2009
Written by Xavier Gine and Dean Yang. Published by the Journal of Development Economics, Volume 89, Pgs 1-11, 2009. Available at: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTFR/Resources/GineYang-InsuranceMalawi.pdf (35 pgs)
In “Insurance, Credit and Technology Adoption: Field Experimental Evidence From Malawi,” Xavier Gine and Dean Yang determine whether farmers who are insured against production risk have a greater demand for loans in order to invest in new hybrid seed technology than farmers who are uninsured against the failure of the hybrid seeds. This study examines maize and groundnut farmers in Malawi , where the major source of crop failure is the level of rainfall. All the farmers were offered loans to purchase high-yield hybrid maize seeds or improved groundnut seeds. Farmers in 16 areas were also required to purchase weather insurance that would forgive the loan should there be insufficient rainfall. The uninsured loan did contain an implicit limited liability constraint that allowed the lender to seize a portion of the yield rather than the collateral presented by the borrower in case of low yield. 33 percent of farmers offered the uninsured loan accepted the loan. The farmers who were required to buy insurance were 39.4 percent less likely to accept a loan to purchase hybrid seeds. Continue Reading »
Friday, May 8, 2009
Friday, May 8, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
For the month of April, the Netherlands-based Oikocredit Ecumenical Development Cooperative Society, a microfinance funding source, reported four loans to the CGAP Microfinance Dealbook, a monthly report on microfinance capital market transactions. Oikocredit granted a one-year USD 75,000 loan to the Kitunda SACCO in Tanzania, a four-year loan of USD 91,000 to Intellekt of Russia, a three-year loan of USD 2 million to the First Microfinance Bank of Tajikistan (FMFB), and a three-year USD 132,000 loan to PMRCA Perelik in Bulgaria. Oikocredit provides loans to about 500 microfinance institutions in 70 countries around the world. Between January and March 2009, Oikocredit provided USD 19.2 million in new loans in 69 countries. The organization currently funds 758 projects of which 501 are microfinance projects, the rest involving other types of social service. Through microfinance alone, Oikocredit claims to reach 16.8 million people. Oikocredit distributes its funding as follows: 40 percent in Latin America, 14 percent in Africa, 27 percent in Asia, 18 percent in Central and Eastern Europe, and 1 percent elsewhere. In November, MicroCapital reported that USAID and Oikocredit would partner together to contribute USD 36.2 million to microfinance institutions (MFIs) over the next ten years. Continue Reading »
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Emerging Microfinance in Anglophone West Africa: May 6, 2009, Lagos, Nigeria
See Our Comprehensive Event Calendar Here:
http://microfinanceassociation.ning.com/events
Cost: N/A
Summary of Event: Alitheia Capital, DARC, JCS Investments and Goodwell Investments have, with the support of First Bank, performed an in-depth study of the potential of the microfinance market in Anglophone West Africa. The event will feature a presentation of the study results as well as an introduction to a new microfinance equity fund to be launched this year. Prominent speakers from the regional and international microfinance community will participate in a panel discussion and answer questions from the floor. Continue Reading »
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group that provides investments and advisory services to build the private sector in developing countries, has called upon financial institutions to embrace micro leasing for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) during a micro leasing awareness workshop at the Laico Hotel in Rwanda. The workshop was organized by the Association of Micro Finance Institutions (AMIR) in collaboration with the IFC’s Rwanda CEDP Leasing Development Program and the Rwanda Development Board (RDB). Continue Reading »
Sunday, May 3, 2009
The Microfinance Money Market Association of Nigeria (MMMAN) was inaugurated in Lagos in March 2009. MicroCapital previously reported on the announcement of the proposed interbank money market in September 2008. The MMMAN was developed by the Financial Derivatives Company (FDC), an asset management company, and the Kakawa Discount House to allow microfinance banks (MFBs) to borrow and invest excess liquidity amongst one another. Financial Vanguard reports that five MFBs, the Integrated MFB, Mic MFB, Accion MFB, Susu MFB and Gapbridge MFB, have officially joined MMMAN. These MFBs have also been trading amongst one another since October to pilot the system. Mr. Jaiyeola Laoye, Managing Director and CEO of Kakawa, said at the inauguration, “The market is for short and medium term liquidity and would help [the MFBs] carry out their functions more effectively.” Also speaking at the inauguration, FDC’s Managing Director Bismarck Rewane, added “Most times, banks get closed down when they are faced with liquidity problems than when they encounter solvency challenges.” The MMMAN is designed to bring stability to the microfinance industry by providing further sources of liquidity to MFBs and to mobilize liquid funds between MFBs at competitive rates. Continue Reading »
Friday, May 1, 2009
According to the Sudan Vision Daily, The Central Bank of Sudan(CBOS) has issued a circular note detailing directives regarding microfinance to Sudanese Banks. A copy of the circular was not available for this report. As part of its 2009 Central Bank Policy the CBOS has encouraged the development of microfinance aimed at social needs such as housing and agriculture, as well as the deepening of Islamic banking. Continue Reading »
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
The European Investment Bank (EIB) announced it is providing a EUR 2 million (USD 2.6 million) grant to support the AfriCap Microfinance Fund through FinTech Africa, to fund capacity building for early-stage and greenfield microfinance institutions across Africa. In addition to the EIB grant, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will contribute a USD 5 million grant to FinTech Africa, the non-profit organization that manages AfriCap’s technical services facility, and the Dutch development agency, FMO, will provide a USD 0.75 million grant. Continue Reading »
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The National Microfinance Bank (NMB) of Tanzania is set to expand its number of branches in 2009. It announced a plan to add between 10 and 15 new branches and nearly double its number of ATM machines. Currently it owns 172 ATMs and has 128 branches. NMB is Tanzania’s largest bank in terms of number of branches and customer deposits. This is expected to cost nearly 10 billion Tanzanian Shillings (TZS) or USD 7.5 million. Continue Reading »
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
K-Rep Bank, a Kenyan commercial bank that targets the microfinance sector, appointed Gerard Monteiro as the new Chief Operations Advisor after reporting a Sh 349 million (USD 4.4 million) loss for 2008. It is hoped that Mr. Monteiro, a 33-year veteran of the banking and microfinance sectors, will help to reverse the five-year low-profitability trend K-Rep Bank has faced. Continue Reading »
Monday, April 20, 2009
Unitus, Inc., an international non-profit organization, and Yehu Microfinance Trust of Kenya announced that they have formed a new partnership. Yehu currently serves people in rural coastal Kenya and Unitus already works with two other MFIs in East Africa. Continue Reading »
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Unitus, an international non-profit organization, has opened the Africa Microfinance Growth Center, a non-profit program developed in partnership with Financial Sector Deepening Kenya (FSDK), to help CEOs and senior managers of early-stage microfinance organizations (MFIs) improve strategy, leadership, and execution in order to grow their organizations and expand microfinance services in East Africa. In addition to assistance from FSDK, financial support is also being provided by Omidyar Network, The Boeing Company, and SV2: Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund. No information as to the amounts provided by these companies or the overall budget of the Center was available at the time of this release. Continue Reading »
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The CEO of Equity Bank, Dr. James Mwangi, announced that in two months, the bank intends to cross-list on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE). In April of 2008, Equity Bank bought 100% stake in Uganda Microfinance Limited, therefore forming Equity Bank Uganda. For more details on this acquisition, please read this Microcapital article. The bank has already lodged its application with the USE and the Capital Markets Authority, Kenya’s market regulator. Continue Reading »
RSS 1.0
Blogs that Link Here
