MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FMO Lends $10m to Latin American Agriculture Development Corporation (LAAD) to Boost Green Investment

The Dutch development bank Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO) recently lent USD 10 million to the US-based Latin American Agriculture Development Corporation (LAAD), a funder of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that export agricultural products. The loan is intended to support

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Asociación de Cooperativas Argentinas (ACA) Borrows $80m from FMO, FinDev Canada, Rabobank to Boost Exports of Produce from 50,000 Farms in Argentina

Asociación de Cooperativas Argentinas (ACA), a network of 143 agricultural cooperatives in Argentina, recently borrowed USD 80 million from three institutions, led by the Dutch development bank Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO). FMO is lending ACA half of the total, and

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Ebanx Acquires Payment Initiator License, Accessing Pix to Simplify E-commerce Purchases in Brazil

Ebanx, a Brazil-based payments company with operations in 15 countries, recently received authorization from the Banco Central de Brasil, Brazil’s central bank, to use the bank’s instant payments platform Pix. This follows Ebanx’s acquisition of a Payment Initiation Service Provider (PISP) license from

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Institution 4 de Octubre Borrows $1.5m from Aequitas Fund for Onlending in Ecuador

The Canadian NGO Desjardins International Development (DID) recently disbursed USD 1.5 million from its financial inclusion fund Aequitas to 4 de Octubre, a microfinance institution (MFI) in Ecuador, to support the MFI’s

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: DID Loaning $2m from Aequitas Fund to Faces Microfinanzas for Microfinance in Ecuador

Aequitas, a financial inclusion fund launched by Desjardins International Development (DID), recently issued a USD 2 million loan to Ecuador-based microfinance institution (MFI) Faces Microfinanzas to

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Financial Inclusion That Works for Women,” by Sam Mendelson, Published by e-MFP

This paper explores model practices in financial inclusion for women through the work of the winner and nine semi-finalists for the European Microfinance Award 2022. Mr Mendelson sorts the lessons learned into three approaches to how financial services providers (FSP) can foster women’s financial inclusion: offering

MICROFINANCE EVENT: X Conferencia Centroamericana y del Caribe de Microfinanzas; March 20-22, 2023; Antigua, Guatemala

The tenth Central American and Caribbean microfinance conference is themed “Resilience and recovery of financial inclusion in the new reality.” The first morning is a forum for showcasing new technologies. The remaining two days will cover themes such as digital transformation, gender equity,

MICROFINANCE EVENT: Opportunity Collaboration: OC2023; October 15-19, 2023; Miches, Dominican Republic

The purpose of this event is to enable attendees to collaborate on solutions to global poverty and injustice. The agenda is primarily attendee-led, with an “unconference” style. For example, Affinity Circles allow attendees to meet informally in groups based on their region, role or goal of interest.

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Digital Finance Campaign Replication Guide,” Published by USAID

This paper describes a digital finance education campaign called “Hey Sister! Show Me the Mobile Money,” including efforts to make it easy to replicate from one geographical context to another. The program facilitates low-income women’s access to digital financial services (DFS) by addressing the challenges of

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MicroVest Loans $4.5m to Financiera FAMA for MSMEs in Nicaragua

US-based asset manager MicroVest recently reported disbursing a loan of USD 4.5 million to Financiera FAMA, a microfinance institution (MFI) that was founded as Fundación para el Apoyo a la Microempresa. Established in 1991 and headquartered in the city of Managua, FAMA provides

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Beneficial Returns Invests in Grupo Murlota to Expand Training, Incubation Capacity for Women Raising Chickens, Selling Organic Eggs in Rural Mexico

Grupo Murlota, a woman-owned provider of chickens and related supplies, financing and training in Mexico, recently borrowed an undisclosed sum from Beneficial Returns, a US-based lender to social enterprises in Latin America and Southeast Asia. The loan will help fund a new building at which Murlota will

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Soleco, Deetken, IDB Deliver “Women in Solar” Training in Jamaica

Soleco Energy, a solar firm serving Latin America and the Caribbean, recently delivered a three-day “Women in Solar” training to 19 women in Jamaica with the intent of boosting the number of women working in the solar energy industry. There was no cost to participants, who gained exposure to

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Cresol Baser of Brazil Borrows $12m from Huruma Fund for Farm Lending, Green Product Development, Impact Measurement

Spain’s Gawa Capital, manager of the public-private Huruma Fund, recently disbursed the fund’s first investment in Brazil, lending EUR 12 million (USD 12.1 million) to Cresol Baser, a cooperative unit of Cresol, which provides savings, loans, training and insurance to individuals, farms and other businesses. The funding is earmarked for agricultural lending, including to help farmers adapt to climate change. Huruma plans to

SPECIAL REPORT: Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs with Revenue-based Repayments, Accounting Apps, Bank Guarantees

e-MFP logoIn a conversation during the last day of European Microfinance Week, Daniel Buchbinder of Guatemala-based Alterna described his NGO’s fee-based support for young entrepreneurs. Upon Alterna’s founding in 2010, its goal was to help its clients’ businesses develop into more stable operations that could qualify for funding. The NGO had served 2,000 firms by 2015, but funders were not investing in many of Alterna’s clients. Hence the NGO launched Catalyzer, a fund that lends small enterprises USD 10,000 to USD 50,000 on a collateral-free basis. Terms range up to five years, and repayments start at 3 percent of revenue and range up to

SPECIAL REPORT: Banco FIE of Bolivia Takes $100k “Financial Inclusion that Works for Women” European Microfinance Award 2022

e-MFP logoFrom the European Microfinance Platform: After a selection process that reviewed applications from 88 organisations, Banco FIE SA has been chosen by the Luxembourg Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs to receive the €100,000 European Microfinance Award 2022.

The Bolivian bank captured the High Jury’s attention by incorporating a gender-related dimension into its products and services, in an effort to make them more accessible to women. To do this, it conducted a large number of customer surveys. Banco FIE provides a wide range of products, including micro-insurance (family life insurance and cancer policies), digital financial literacy and technical support to enhance agricultural productivity among women. Within its own organisation, Banco FIE has introduced an innovative business management model called “Marca Magenta” to promote inclusive leadership, the empowerment of women, the prevention of violence and

SPECIAL REPORT: Solar-powered Onions in Senegal, Meso-insurance Against Storms in Nicaragua, Performance-based Interest Rate Reductions for Climate-smart Lending in India

e-MFP logoIn a session on strengthening agricultural value chains today at European Microfinance Week, Daphne van Dam of Cordaid described her organization’s work to support onion farmers in Senegal. The farmers were struggling with the cost of fuel for irrigation. Cordaid was able to partner with local microfinance and solar providers to supply farmers with solar-powered irrigation systems that they could pay for on a schedule attuned to the harvest time of their crop.

Magdalena Arbelaez of Incofin described her firm’s work enabling insurance for farmers in Nicaragua. Rather than microinsurance, which would have been unworkable for many of the smallholder farmers in the region, the project extended

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Quona Capital Closes Fund III with $332m for Fintech in Africa, Asia, Latin America

Quona Capital, an investor in financial inclusion that has offices in 10 countries, recently announced the close of its Fund III, with this latest fundraising round engaging most of Fund III’s ongoing investors and 20 new ones. As a result, the fund has a total of USD 332 million in commitments, and the firm has USD

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bamboo, CABEI, IFC Exit Holdings in Banco Popular as Incofin, Triple Jump Buy In; BIO, FMO Increase Equity Stakes to Boost Rural Microfinance in Honduras

Approximately 64 percent of the shares of the Honduran microfinance institution Banco Popular are changing hands as two multilateral institutions that first invested in Popular in 2007 are exiting their holdings. The sellers are the Central American Bank for Economic Integration; the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation; and Bamboo Capital, which has been an investor in the microbank since 2012.

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