MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Goodwell West Africa Acquires 30% Stake in Microfinance Institution Women’s World Banking Ghana (WWBG)

Goodwell West Africa, one of four funds of the Netherlands’ Goodwell Investments, recently acquired a 30-percent share of Women’s World Banking Ghana (WWBG). This was a co-investment with Ghanaian Databank Group and JCS Investments [1]. Through its investment, the Databank Group has become the largest shareholder in WWBG. The pricing of the investment has not been released.

As of December 2013, WWBG has total assets of USD 15.4 million, a gross loan portfolio of USD 7.5 million disbursed amongst 6,696 borrowers, USD 15.3 million in deposits accumulated from 85,869 depositors, return on assets (ROA) of 1.9 percent and return on equity of -41.4 percent. Also as of 2013, the 39 WWB member microfinance institutions serve 26 million active clients in 28 countries with USD 4.4 billion in savings deposits collected, a gross loan portfolio of USD 6.9 billion and approximately 14 million women served.

From its branches in The Gambia, Ghana and Liberia, the Databank Group offers services such as insurance, savings and asset management. Financial data on the firm are not available.

Goodwell West Africa raised EUR 16 million (USD 17.4 million) through its final close in 2013 from investors including the German government’s Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau Entwicklungsbank (KfW) and the Norwegian Microfinance Initiative, a public-private partnership.

By Jeff Pierce, Research Associate

About Goodwell Investments

Goodwell Investments, which is based in the Netherlands, in both new “entrepreneurial” microfinance institutions (MFIs) and established MFIs via long-term risk capital. For start-up and small scale MFIs, Goodwell works with non-banking finance company IntelleCash, a member of India’s Intellecap group, which provides operational support to the MFIs. Goodwell operates via two entities, Goodwell Microfinance Development Company (MDC) I and Goodwell MDC II, both of which are structured as private equity companies. These companies invest in four regional funds: Aavishkaar Goodwell and Aavishkaar Goodwell II, which invest in India; Goodwell West-Africa, which invests in West Africa; and Goodwell III, which invests Sub-Saharan Africa. These entities are managed by Aavishkaar in India, Alitheia in Nigeria and JCS Investments in Ghana.

About Women’s World Banking

Women’s World Banking (WWB) is a nonprofit organization based in the US city of New York that was founded in 1979 to provide microfinance to women around the world. As of 2013, the 39 WWB member microfinance institutions serve 26 million active clients in 28 countries with USD 4.4 billion in savings deposits collected, a gross loan portfolio of USD 6.9 billion and approximately 14 million women served.

About Norwegian Microfinance Initiative (NMI)

The Norwegian Microfinance Initiative (NMI), a registered private limited liability company, is a partnership between the Norwegian public and private sectorsthat invests in and provides technical support for microfinance institutions (MFIs) in developing countries. The mission of NMI is “to contribute to the empowerment of poor people and to the creation of jobs, wealth, and economic and social sustainability in developing countries by investing in and supporting MFIs.” As of 2014, NMI makes its investments through three investment funds: NMI Global Fund, which was established in 2008 and supports MFIs that have operations deemed “large and sustainable” with assets of NOK 360 million (USD 60 million); NMI Frontier Fund, which was established in 2008 and supports emerging MFIs in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia with assets of NOK 240 million (USD 40 million); and NMI Fund III, which supports MFIs considered to be financially sustainable or are likely to become financially sustainable in the near future. NMI Fund III was created in June 2013 with investor commitments of NOK 182 million (USD 30.5 million).

About KfW

Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau Entwicklungsbank (KfW) is a state-owned development bank in Germany. KfW has three goals: to reduce poverty, to make globalization “fair” and to conserve natural resources. KfW collaborates with local financial institutions in approximately 60 countries, including microbanks, commercial banks, village savings banks, non-governmental organizations and regional microfinance funds. KfW made new financing commitments of EUR 1.7 billion (USD 2.3 billion) through the first three fiscal quarters of 2013 and reports total assets of EUR 476 billion (USD 651 billion) as of October 2013.

Sources and Additional Resources:

[1] Goodwell Press Release: “Goodwell acquires stake in Women’s World Banking Ghana,” http://goodwell.nl/news/goodwell-acquires-stake-in-womens-world-bank-ghana/

[2] Goodwell Info: “Goodwell West Africa” http://goodwell.nl/portfolio/investment-vehicles/goodwell-west-africa/

[3] Information provided directly to MicroCapital by Goodwell

MicroCapital Universe Profile: Goodwell

https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=Goodwell

MicroCapital Universe Profile: Women’s World Banking

https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=Women%27s+World+Banking+%28WWB%29

MicroCapital Universe Profile: Norwegian Microfinance Initiative

https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=Norwegian+Microfinance+Initiative+%28NMI%29

MicroCapital Universe Profile: KfW

https://www.microcapital.org/microfinanceuniverse/tiki-index.php?page=KfW+Entwicklungsbank+%28KfW%29

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