Source: Emirates Business 24|7.

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Acumen Fund, a venture capital fund that invests in sustainable development operations, announced four new investments in Pakistan. The investments amount to over USD 2.8 million. Acumen Fund began investing in Pakistan in 2002 with a focus on the housing sector, providing slum-dwellers with affordable legal housing and infrastructure alternatives, as well as financial services that allowed low-income clients to improve their homes and supplement their incomes. Acumen Fund has since expanded its focus to address the broader set of critical issues keeping the majority of the population of 160 million people in poverty. Continue Reading »

On November 16, the Citi Foundation, a philanthropic foundation dedicated to economic development, and the Jordan River Foundation (JRF), a Jordanian non-profit organization (NGO) focused on female entrepreneurship, held the 2008 Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards ceremony for Jordan.  The two groups and the Jordanian government highlighted the active role that micro-credit plays in alleviating local poverty and honored individual micro-entrepeneurs, including ten women.  The Ministry of Planning and International Cooperation (MoPIC) also announced new funding initiatives for the microfinance sector.  Continue Reading »

On November 7, Fransabank SAL, an international commercial bank active primarily in the Middle East, and Ameen, a Lebanese microfinance institution (MFI), created a new microfinance partnership to help small businesses in the Jbeil region of Lebanon.  The program will enable owners of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to expand their businesses by providing them with loans that range from USD 337 (LBP 500,000) to USD 2,023 (LBP 3,000,000) with credit facilities ranging from six months to 18 months.  Loan applicants can also avail of technical and administrative support services. Continue Reading »

The Partnership for Lebanon (PFL), an organization focused on creating sustainable social and economic growth in the region, recently hosted an event highlighting the creation of several new initiatives by some partner organizations. The event brought together Lebanese business sector leaders, economic organizations, various governmental entities, press and partners. Cisco Systems and Intel Corporation were a few of the organizations on hand to present the new programs. Continue Reading »

Figures released by Jordan’s Planning Ministry indicate that over 120,000 citizens have borrowed from local microfinance institutions (MFIs) with loans outstanding at JD 65 million, the dollar equivalent of over USD 91 million.  Specifically, 7 Jordanian MFIs were recognized at a Ministry ceremony where each signed a code of ethics governing this joint effort. Continue Reading »

Source: Planet Finance.
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Source: Daily News Egypt

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Written by Nimrah Karim, Michael Tarazi and Xavier Reille and based primarily on secondary research by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), released in August 2008 as Number 49 of Focus Note, a publication of CGAP, 16 pages, available on October 27, 2008 at: http://www2.cgap.org/gm/document-1.9.5029/FocusNote_49.pdf. Continue Reading »

International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, signed an agreement, for an undisclosed amount, with First MicroFinanceBank Afghanistan (FMFB), part of the Aga Khan Agency of Microfinance, a unit of Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) to strengthen the bank’s capacity to introduce a product line that will address the housing needs of low- and middle-income Afghans.  First MicroFinanceBank Afghanistan, established in 2003, was the first licensed microfinance bank in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban regime.  The company had USD 27.2 million in loans outstanding in 2007. Continue Reading »

Source: Common Ground News

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The Community Development Authority of Dubai (CDA) and the PlaNet Finance Group have held talks on collaborative opportunities within Dubai’s microfinance sector. Established as a government entity in July 2008, the CDA is responsible for the social development frameworks within Dubai. Its goals are to complete the objectives of Dubai’s Strategic Plan of 2015 which was unveiled in February of the same year. The Strategic Plan is expected to generate an annual GDP growth of 11 percent to Dh396.36 billion (USD 108 billion) by 2015 from the country’s current  GDP of Dh137.25 billion (USD 37.4 billion). Continue Reading »

The European Bank for Reconstruction & Development (EBRD) held a conference in Azerbaijan in September focusing on the progress of its microfinance initiatives within the country to date. The event hosted international investors as well as government officials and entrepreneurs in the SME and microenterprise sectors within Azerbaijan. Continue Reading »

Source: CHF International.
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A recent International Finance Corporation (IFC) study found that only 11.5 percent of the potential USD 286m Lebanese microfinance market is currently being tapped by microfinance institutions (MFIs). The study noted a lack of funding for MFIs and an underdeveloped focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) by commercial banks as the main inhibitors to microfinance growth. Continue Reading »

Nonprofit AKAM (Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance), a unit of AKDN (Aga Khan Development Network), continues its rapid expansion of microfinance operations with the recent establishment Syria’s first microfinance institution. Suitably named “First Microfinance Institution” (FMFI), the microlender is scheduled to begin operations in the coming weeks, providing financial services to individuals currently bypassed by mainstream banking, a market that constitutes 90 percent of the country’s population. FMFI’s financial services will include both microloans and deposit facilities, and will serve Syrians in six of the country’s fourteen provinces. Continue Reading »

Source: Syria Today.

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Source: International Finance Corporation (IFC).

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