MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Developpement international Desjardins (DiD) Supports Lenders of Centre de Traitement Informatise du Senegal in Reaching Clients via SMS Messaging

Développement international Desjardins (DiD), a unit of Canada’s cooperative Desjardins Group that promotes financial services in developing countries, launched a pilot program with financial cooperatives that are clients of the Centre de traitement informatisé du Sénégal (CTISN), a data processing center established in Senegal by DiD. The program delivers borrowers overdue, payment, penalty, and transfer notices.

As a result of the service, DiD reports a decrease in delinquency rate and a lower rate of fees incurred resulting in an increase in savings.

By Petra Barbu, Research Associate

About Développement international Desjardins

Développement international Desjardins (DiD) is a Canadian nonprofit corporation that specializes in providing technical support and investment for the community finance sector in emerging economies. It assists organizations in approximately 30 nations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. DiD is a component of the Desjardins Group, a financial cooperative offering banking, insurance, securities and investment services, with approximately CAD 248 billion (approximately USD 197 billion) in assets as of 2015. DiD has two funds that provide loans and investment capital to microfinance institutions and funds specializing in microfinance, the Partnership Fund and the Desjardins Fund for Inclusive Finance. As of 2015, the two funds under management had a combined budget of CAN 40 million (approximately USD 30 million). In the past, DiD managed the now-closed Guarantee Fund, and it is currently winding down Fonds d’investissement pour le développement international (FONIDI).

DiD also organizes the Proxfin network of 30 community finance institutions and directly operates “entrepreneur financial centers” (EFCs) in Panama, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia as of 2015. The EFCs in Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia accept deposits. The four EFCs other than the one in Tunisia claim aggregate assets of CAD 68 million (USD 54 million), a loan portfolio of CAD 53 million (USD 43 million), deposits of CAD 12 million (USD 9 million) and 32,000 clients. Data from the EFC in Tanzania, which was founded in 2015, are not yet available.

Sources and Additional Resources:

[1] Desjardins, Innovations in Credit Management

[2] MicroCapital Brief, Canadian Government Appoints Developpement international Desjardin (DiD) to Run FARM (Agricultural and Rural Financing) in Mali Project

[3] MicroCapital Brief, Agile Financial Technologies (Agile FT) of the United Arab Emirates Signs Deal with Theme Technologies (Theme) of India to Acquire Theme’s Micro-finance, Micro-credit and Credit Management Products

[4] MicroCapital Universe Profile: Développement international Desjardins

[5] MicroCapital: Dejardins Group

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