The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, recently informed MicroCapital that it is extending three-year, local-currency loans each approximately equivalent to USD 378,000 in favor of Benin’s Association des Caisses de Financement à la Base (ACFB) and Mutuelle d’Épargne et de Crédit (MEC) Fadec Njambur of Senegal.
This is the first loan from the GCA Foundation to ACFB. The GCA Foundation describes ACFB as a “microfinance institution whose mission is to promote low-income working populations, particularly women, by providing them with quality financial and non-financial services.” As of 2016, ACFB reported to the US-based nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) total assets of USD 8.1 million, a gross loan portfolio of USD 5.6 million outstanding to 31,000 clients, deposits of USD 5.0 million held for 103,000 clients, and 17 branches.
MEC Fadec is a savings and credit cooperative active in the regions of Kebemer and Louga. As of December 2017, it has a gross loan portfolio of CFA 659 million (USD 1.2 million), obligatory client savings of CFA 108 million (USD 200,000) and 18 employees at six branch locations. Roughly two thirds of the institution’s borrowers are women; half of the value of its lending is for agriculture and animal husbandry; and an eighth of its lending is via groups.
The GCA Foundation was founded in 2008 by Credit Agricole SA, a French retail bank, and Grameen Trust, a nonprofit microfinance organization affiliated with the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. The foundation focuses on supporting organizations that prioritize rural development, transparency, consumer protection and serving women. As of December 2017, the GCA Foundation had outstanding loans of EUR 62 million (USD 76 million) and experience with 69 partners in 28 countries in Africa and Eurasia.
Sources and Additional Resources
Direct contact with the Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation
Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation Loans $340k to Senegal’s MEC Fadec, $930 to Tajikistan’s Humo Partners – January 2016
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-grameen-credit-agricole-microfinance-foundation-loans-340k-in-local-currency-to-senegals-mec-fadec-930k-to-tajikistans-humo-partners/
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