The Entrepreneur Financial Centre (EFC) of Tunisia, a microfinance institution (MFI) operated by Canada’s Développement International Desjardins (DID), recently obtained an equity investment of EUR 1 million (USD 1.1 million) from Société de Promotion et de Participation pour La Coopération Economique (Proparco), a development finance institution of the French government’s Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD). AFD also committed EUR 1 million (USD 1.1 million) for EFC Tunisia to receive technical assistance from DID related to “the strengthening of EFC management and operations.”
Through the equity investment, Proparco joins DID and Tunisia’s AfricInvest Group as shareholders in EFC Tunisia, raising the MFI’s capital from TND 4.6 million (USD 2 million) to TND 7.9 million (USD 3.4 million).
Launched in 2015, EFC Tunisia has five branches, 540 clients and TND 4.5 million (USD 2 million) in outstanding loans as of October. In addition to loans for businesses owned by men, subsidized loans for female entrepreneurs and “Kardh Sayara” vehicle loans, EFC Tunisia also offers life insurance, car insurance and fire insurance for homes and businesses.
DID, a unit of Canadian cooperative Desjardins Group, operates EFCs in Panama and four African countries. Its other projects include agricultural, educational and environmental efforts in Africa, the Americas and Asia. The Desjardins Group has total assets of CAD 261 billion (USD 199 billion) as of December 2015.
As of December 2015, AFD reports total assets of EUR 35.8 billion (USD 40.1 billion).
Sources and Additional Resources
Information provided directly to MicroCapital by DID.
DID press release
http://www.did.qc.ca/en/news/the-french-development-agency-afd-and-156/
EFC Tunisia
http://www.cfe.com.tn/
Desjardins Group
https://www.desjardins.com/
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