Accion, a US-based provider of microenterprise loans and business training in 31 countries, has announced that its Accion Venture Lab, which provides seed capital and management support to financial inclusion startups, has invested an aggregate of USD 10 million in five startup companies that deliver financial services to poor people around the globe. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the US-based World Bank Group, and Jordan Ahli Bank, a Jordan-based financial institution, recently launched the SME Toolkit, an initiative of IFC, in Jordan. Continue Reading »

“State of Social Performance in Nepal;” by Mike Krell; published by Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX); March 2013; 10 pages; available at http://www.themix.org/publications/mix-microfinance-world/2013/03/Nepal-development-2013

This report from the US-based nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) examines the social performance (SP) of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Nepal. Continue Reading »

The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), a public business school located in the Indian state of Gujurat, recently released a report detailing the results of its impact study on Bandhan Financial Services Private Limited, an Indian microfinance institution. Continue Reading »

Event Name: Global Islamic Microfinance Forum

Event Date: October 6, 2013, followed by a two-day workshop

Event Location: Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Continue Reading »

Pi Slice, a start-up crowdfunding platform based in Dubai, reportedly plans to link poor entrepreneurs in the Middle East to microloans raised via social media. Continue Reading »

Published by the Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN); 2013; 40 pages; available at: http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-1.9.60963/MicroMeter_Feb%202013_Issue%2004_5th%20Feb%202013_for%20distribution.pdf

The Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN), an association of 47 Indian microlenders, has released the fourth issue of MicroMeter, an analysis of the Indian microfinance industry’s performance during the third quarter (Q3) of fiscal year (FY) 2012-2013 (spanning October to December 2012). Continue Reading »

AccessBank, a for-profit microfinance institution based in Azerbaijan, recently received a loan of USD 4.2 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a multilateral institution headquartered in London, that will provide 30 percent of the financing required to renovate its new headquarters in Baku.  Continue Reading »

Switzerland’s responsAbility Social Investments has increased its debt exposure to Bai Tushum & Partners, a microfinance institution (MFI) in the Kyrgyz Republic, from USD 6 million to USD 11 million.  Continue Reading »

The Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), an agency of the federal government of Australia, reportedly has pledged its support to Women’s World Banking (WWB), a US-based nonprofit microfinance network, to assist with the expansion of international microinsurance services. Continue Reading »

Tamkeen, an agency supporting the private sector that is backed by the government of Bahrain, and Family Bank, a nonprofit Bahraini microfinance bank, recently signed an agreement whereby Tamkeen will fund an increase of BHD 1 million (USD 2.6 million) in the portfolio of the Microfinance Support Scheme, a joint program of the two organizations that offers financing services to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Continue Reading »

By Michael J. McCord; published by the Microfinance Centre for Central and Eastern Europe and the New Independent States, the Microinsurance Centre and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); 2012; 124 pages; available at: http://www.ifad.org/ruralfinance/wrmf/manual.pdf

In this manual, Mr. McCord proposes a “systematic new-product development process” for the microinsurance market. Continue Reading »

The New Urban Finance Facility for Africa (NUF), an impact investing facility that supports housing microfinance, is investing USD 100 million to fund microfinance housing schemes in Africa and the Middle East, with initial investments going to Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the West Bank. Continue Reading »

The Sanad Fund for MSME (micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises), an initiative of the German development bank Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau Entwicklungsbank that invests in financial institutions in the Middle East and North Africa, recently agreed to disburse a senior loan facility of USD 2 million to Palestine for Credit and Development, a microfinance institution (MFI) based in Palestine’s West Bank that is known as Faten in Arabic. Continue Reading »

US-based financial service provider Citigroup recently informed MicroCapital that it has issued a local-currency loan equivalent to USD 2 million to Tamweelcom, a Jordanian nonprofit microfinance institution (MFI), to support the growth of its loan portfolio. Continue Reading »

The Sanad Fund for MSME (micro-, small and medium-sized enterprise), an initiative of the German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau Entwicklungsbank that provides debt and equity to financial institutions in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), announced that it has agreed to loan USD 20 million to Bank Audi, a private bank headquartered in Beirut, Lebanon, to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in MENA. Continue Reading »

On January 30, 2013, Sanabel, an Egypt-based nonprofit network of microfinance institutions in Arab countries, announced Sahar Tieby as its new executive director, succeeding Ranya Abdel-Baki, Sanabel’s executive director since October 2009. Continue Reading »

Event Name: Arab Youth & Entrepreneurship: Holistic Approaches to Nurturing Local Ecosystems

Event Date: February 16-18, 2013

Event Location: Doha, Qatar Continue Reading »