MICROCAPITAL STORY: Indonesia's MBK Ventura, Egypt's Al Tadamun, and Grameen Bank's Nurjahan Begum Recognized at Grameen Foundation 2008 Awards

The achievements of the Grameen Bank‘s Nurjahan Begum, Indonesia’s Mitra Bisnis Keluarga (MBK) Ventura, and Egypt’s Al Tadamun were recognized on November 12, 2008 at the Grameen Foundation’s 2008 Awards in Washington D.C. The awards were held in conjunction with its annual Knowledge Sharing Roundtable discussion, which this year discussed the implications of the global financial crisis on microfinance. Nurjahan Begum received the Susan M. Davis Lifetime Achievement Award for her work in microfinance for over 30 years, including her efforts to organize women in Bangladesh’s poorest villages and leading the fight for the rights of disadvantaged women. MBK Ventura of Indonesia received the Excellence in Microfinance Award for its leadership its efforts to ensure that Indonesia’s poorest citizens receive financial services, and Al Tadamun of Egypt was awarded the Pioneer in Microfinance Award in recognition of its program to provide financial services to Cairo’s poorest women.

The Grameen Foundation Awards began in 2000 with the purpose of recognizing outstanding achievements by microfinance institutions (MFIs). It has also given special recognition to exemplary individual accomplishments in the fight against global poverty. The three honours awarded by the Grameen Foundation are the Excellence in Microfinance Award, recognizing MFIs distinguishing themselves as industry leaders, the Pioneer in Microfinance Award, recognizing emerging MFIs that exemplify innovation in microfinance or working in traditionally underserved regions, and the Susan M. Davis Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing individuals who have worked tirelessly towards ending poverty through microfinance. In 2008, the Pioneer in Microfinance was awarded in partnership by Grameen-Jaleel Pan-Arab Microfinance Limited, a partnership between Grameen Foundation (GF) and the Abdul Latif Jameel Group that was launched in 2003 in order to strengthen the microfinance industry in the Middle East and North Africa.

Al Tadamun is an MFI that was created in 1996 to increase the income of women micro-entrepreneurs of the poor neighborhoods of Greater Cairo through providing sustained appropriate financial services. Al Tadamun grew out of a pilot project between Save the Children USA‘s Group Guaranteed Lending and Savings (GGLS) and the Women’s Health Improvement Association (WHIA) in the Cairo neighbourhood of Abdeen. The project expanded to other neighbourhoods and merged in 2003 to become a fully autonomous program, while Save the Children remains its largest funder. At the same time in 2003 Al Tadamun became a Grameen-Jameel partner, with Grameen-Jameel providing USD 400 thousand to Al Tadamun to date. At the end of 2007 it reported total assets of USD 5.9 million with a debt to equity ratio of 115.57 percent. It has over 41 thousand borrowers, all of which are women and the average loan balance per borrower is USD 113.

Mitra Bisnis Keluarga (MBK), which means “family business partners”, is a non-bank financial company whose mission it is to provide working capital to low-income households in Indonesia. MBK existed previously as a foundation called Ganesha Microfinance Foundation from 2003 to 2006, but became a non-bank financial company in January 2006. MBK uses the Grameen Bank methodology in its operations, and it currently operates in six rural districts of Java. In June 2008 MBK reported total assets of USD 6.1 million with a debt to equity ratio of 496.23 percent. They have over 88 thousand active borrowers and the average loan balance per borrower is USD 52. All of their borrowers are women.