SPECIAL REPORT: Partner with Agents for Impact, and We’ll Drive Impact Together!

This article is sponsored by Agents for Impact (AFI). We invite you to learn more about the firm via LinkedIn.

Andrij Fetsun, Founder & CEO at AFI:
AFI celebrated five years in bus­iness in October this year, and my team has attained several impact­ful goals during this challenging time. This would not have been possible without the im­mense support of our clients: the Ger­man impact-driven microfinance fund Invest in Visions, which has accumu­lated a volume of around EUR 1 billion with a major focus on micro­finance; HANSA­INVEST, which is based in Hamburg; and the crowdfunding platform Lendahand. Among the services we provide these clients is to perform plausibility checks of their funds’ ESG reports.

As the founder of AFI, I would like to highlight the culture we have built with our dedicated team that has come to­gether during these five years from dif­ferent parts of the world. I believe that corporate culture is crucial for every com­pany, especially for startups. Initially, we had trouble attracting Agents since we were not a well-established name in the industry or able to pay high salaries from the outset. Therefore, I focused on what truly makes for a great workplace

SPECIAL REPORT: Leveraging Carbon Credits to Insure MSMEs in Climate-vulnerable Nations #SAM2023

What a pleasure it was to interview Diana Chepng’eno (pictured below) at SAM 2023 in Togo last month! She is such a warm and energetic person – and deeply engaged in the critical work of climate adaptation and miti­gation across Africa and the Middle East.

During SAM 2023, Ms Chepng’eno spoke at the opening plenary ses­sion “Making Africa’s Future Sustainable – Climate, Socio-economic Develop­ment and Inclusive Finance” as well as a breakout session titled “Helping Financial Institutions Deal with Cli­mate Change – Assessing Risks and Strengthening Institutional Resili­ence.”

Bob Summers: What are you working on with the V20 group of climate-vulnerable nations (which now comprises 68 low- and middle-income countries)?
Diana Chepng’eno: Sitting within the UN Environment Programme Finance Initia­tive, under the Princi­ples for Sustainable Insurance, we are ramping up a Sustain­able Insurance Facility. We launched the facility in 2022 to advocate for the import­ance of insurance for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in V20 countries as a significant driver for miti­gating climate change risks. MSMEs, for example, comprise about 75 percent of the total GDP of the V20. Therefore, if we can support these MSMEs by fa­cili­tating access to much-needed insurance, so that they may become more climate resilient, then these entire countries can be climate-resilient.

BS: What mechanisms does the facility use?
DC: The work is all based on partnerships. Insurers are critical, of course. We also need firms that

MICROFINANCE EVENT: 19th Annual Global Microfinance Forum; March 14-15, 2024; Amsterdam, Netherlands

This forum will bring stakeholders together to discuss topics such as: (1) Climate-smart Financing for Smallholder Farmers; (2) Women’s Economic Empowerment by MFIs [Microfinance Institutions]; and (3) Green & Sustainable Finance; Genuine Change from MFIs.

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: AfDB Seeking $1b for African Climate Risk Insurance Facility (ACRIFA) to Boost Microinsurance for Farms, Livestock Against Drought, Floods

The multilateral African Development Bank (AfDB) recently launched a fund called the African Climate Risk Insurance Facility (ACRIFA), aimed at increasing the continent’s resilience to adverse weather events. ACRIFA follows on AfDB’s Africa Disaster Risk Insurance Program, which supported the creation and uptake of insurance products and

SPECIAL REPORT: Investors, MFIs Continue to Wrestle with Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR) #EMW2023

e-MFP logoThe Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR), which the EU passed in 2019, resulted in a “seismic shift” for impact investment funds and their investees. At the closing plenary of European Microfinance Week 2023, Emmanuelle Javoy of Switzerland-based investor Symbiotics explained her firm’s response to SFDR. The company invested a large amount of resources to review the sustainability objectives of each of its 25 funds.

Jurgen Hammer of the 

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Gendered Investment Differences Among Smallholder Farmers: Evidence from a Microcredit Programme in Western Kenya,” by Keiji Jindo et al

The authors of this study conducted a client-level analysis to examine differences in the investment behavior of female and male microcredit users in Kenya. The scope included

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IDB Invest Lending $30m to Atlantic Bank in Support of MSMEs in Belize, with a Focus on Women-owned Firms

IDB Invest, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, recently agreed to issue Atlantic Bank Limited of Belize senior loan funds of up to USD 30 million with the aim of fostering the expansion of Atlantic Bank’s financing for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The funding package is divided

MICROFINANCE EVENT: AEMFI 25th Anniversary; November 28 – December 1, 2023; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Themed, “MFIs in a Digital Era: Financial Inclusion for Job Creation and Women Empowerment,” this event offers microfinance institutions multiple opportunities to showcase their products and how they can contribute to reducing poverty. Researchers will also present their findings, and funders and government representatives will attend to collaborate on strategies for growing the industry. The event, whose primary organizer is the 50-member Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions (AEMFI), event is

SPECIAL REPORT: Leveraging Financial Inclusion to Get Food Security Back on the Increase #EMW2023

e-MFP logoGlobal food security had been increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. People with low incomes were becoming more able to access – both in terms of cost and distance – a range of foods such as grains and fresh produce on a year-round basis. However, during the first year of COVID-19, 47 million women fell into extreme poverty, reducing their – and their children’s – access to

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: RDG Collective Borrows $2m from Oikocredit for Pay-as-you-go Solar Appliances for 12k Low-income Households in Zambia

Dutch impact investor Oikocredit recently channeled USD 2 million to RDG Collective, a provider of renewable energy products to households in Zambia. Through this collaboration, RDG plans to supply 12,000 households with “access to clean energy

SPECIAL REPORT: Financial Inclusion of Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs), Host Communities Results in Competitive PAR Ratios #EMW2023

e-MFP logoThe Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation recently carried out a pilot project in Uganda engaging financial services providers (FSPs) in serving refugees and their host communities. The goal is to support FSPs in adapting their products to the needs of forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) – “adapting” because new products are not generally needed – and rolling them out to prove the business case for serving these populations. Despite early reluctance from FSPs, their portfolio-at-risk ratios turned out to be under 5 percent – sometimes better than their overall portfolios. As a result, two of the foundation’s FSP partners have

SPECIAL REPORT: Yikri of Burkina Faso Wins $110k European Microfinance Award for Progress Toward Food Security #EMW2023

e-MFP logoFrom the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP): Yikri wins European Microfinance Award 2023 for its commitment to addressing the complex challenges of food security and nutrition in Burkina Faso.

This report is part of

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EBRD Loans $21m to BMCI of Morocco as Part of Women in Business (WiB) Program

The multilateral European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recently agreed to loan up to MAD 220 million (USD 21.5 million) to Banque Marocaine pour le Commerce et l’Industrie (BMCI) in support of the Women in Business (WiB) program, through which EBRD serves women-led micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs)

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Whole Planet Foundation Offering Interest-free Wholesale Funding for Microfinance in Latin America, Caribbean

As a part of its goal to reach 300,000 “microentrepreneurs, smallholder farmers, and [members of] vulnerable populations,” the US-based Whole Planet Foundation is accepting applications for loans and grants from “socially-focused microfinance institutions, social enterprises, nonprofit organizations and cooperatives” that provide microloans and related services.

MICROFINANCE EVENT: Consumers International Global Congress; December 6-8, 2023; Nairobi, Kenya

Every four years, this event gathers stakeholders aiming to create a resilient future for the mass market. The agenda covers topics such as: (1) Transforming Consumer Journeys in Mobile Money; (2) The Influence of ChatGPT on Consumer Experiences; (3) Channels of

SPECIAL REPORT: Small Business Diaries Benefit Entrepreneurs, Microfinance Institutions #EMW2023

e-MFP logoThe Financial Access Initiative (FAI) at New York University recently completed a study spanning seven countries, collecting data from firms with up to 20 paid employees. Researchers visited hundreds of these companies every few weeks for one year to support them in completing diaries of their financial lives. Among the takeaways are that the owners of the firms want to maintain stability and grow at a moderate pace and that they are most in need of