Sanabel, an Egypt-based nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing Arab microfinance, recently launched a transparency program called “Shafafeya” that produces comparative analysis, trend analysis and financial highlights of the microfinance sector in the Arab world. Continue Reading »

The Minister of Planning and International Cooperation of Jordan, J’afaar Hassan, recently met with a group of microfinance practitioners as part of the operational plan of the country’s national strategy for the microfinance sector. Continue Reading »

The nonprofit AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics (CIBE) of Pakistan recently launched the Centre of Excellence on Islamic Microfinance in order to provide Shariah guidance and capacity building to microfinance institutions (MFIs). Continue Reading »

All adults in the Ernakulem district of the Indian state of Kerala reportedly are expected to have bank accounts by September as a result of a campaign by banks in the district to have those excluded from banking services, access bank accounts, credit, remittance services and microinsurance policies. Continue Reading »

SANAD Fund for MSME, a Luxembourg-based investment fund, has invested in Jordan for the first time, with a synthetic local currency loan equivalent to USD 3 million disbursed to Middle East Micro-Credit Company (MEMCC), a microfinance institution (MFI). Continue Reading »

Silatech, a Qatar-based social enterprise, and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ), the development agency of the German government, have partnered with Al-Amal Microfinance Bank (AMB) and Alkuraimi Islamic Microfinance Bank (AIMB), both of Yemen, to extend financial access to Yemeni youth through a microsavings program. Continue Reading »

Incofin, a Belgian for-profit microfinance investment manager, has agreed to disburse loans of USD 3 million to FINCA Kyrgyzstan, a branch of US-based microfinance nonprofit FINCA International, and USD 2 million to Bai Tushum Partners, a microfinance institution (MFI) based in Kyrgyzstan. Continue Reading »

Swarna Pragati Housing Microfinance Limited, an Indian housing finance company, and Accion, a US-based nonprofit, reportedly have invested USD 4.5 million in Saija Finance, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI).

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reportedly has announced that the number of no-frills or zero-balance account holders has doubled since 2010, rising to 103.2 million as of March 31, 2012. Continue Reading »

The demand for Islamic finance experts is ten times greater than the current supply, according to Zubhair Mughal, CEO of AlHuda Centre of Islamic Banking and Economics, a nonprofit microfinance research and training organization based in Pakistan. Continue Reading »

The Microfund for Women (MFW), a Jordanian microfinance institution serving microentrepreneurs, has extended health insurance coverage to family members of its clients as part of the second phase of its Caregiver Program, which helps to defray expenses associated with hospitalization. Continue Reading »

SKS Microfinance, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI), has announced plans to offer an endowment life insurance plan to its borrowers. Continue Reading »

The loan recast proposal of Sharada’s Women’s Association for Weaker Section (SWAWS) Credit Corporation, an Indian microfinance institution (MFI), has been admitted into the 2012 corporate debt restructuring (CDR) cell, which was designed by the reserve bank of India to help MFIs carry out restructuring plans. Continue Reading »

UK-based financial services company HSBC (formerly known as the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), Dubai-based microfinance investor Grameen-Jameel and Bankers without Borders (BwB), a program of the US-based Grameen Foundation, are partnering to provide financial and technical expertise to microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Middle East and North Africa. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, is sponsoring a series of workshops for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt “on how to implement sound corporate governance standards to improve their performance, increase access to finance and foster sustained growth.” Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, and Wells Fargo, an American financial services provider, recently teamed up to launch a USD 200 million, five-year risk-sharing facility to support the trade financing needs of banks in emerging countries with the aim to propel economic growth and job creation. Continue Reading »

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-investment arm of the World Bank Group, and the nonprofit Qatar Development Bank (QDB) have launched the SME Toolkit, an online platform, in Qatar [1]. Continue Reading »

Switzerland’s responsAbility Social Investments AG recently reported to MicroCapital that is has lent the local currency equivalent of USD 1.5 million to Jordan’s Middle East Micro Credit Company (MEMCC) –with equivalent to USD 1 million from the responsAbility Global Microfinance Fund (rAGMF) and equivalent to USD 500,000 from responsAbility Mikrofinanz-Fonds (rAMF). Continue Reading »