World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) Receives USD 27.7 mn Funding from Microfinance Investment Support Facility of Afghanistan (MISFA) and United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

WOCCU has received USD 19.4 mn and USD 8.3 mn funding from USAID and MISFA respectively to expand its presence in Afghanistan.

The USAID funding will be used to set up 20 credit unions and points of service, designated as Investment and Finance Cooperatives (IFCs) in Northern, Southern and Eastern Afghanistan. This funding is part of USAID’s USD 80 mn support to the Academy for Educational Development’s (AED) Agricultural, Rural Investment and Enterprise Strengthening Program (ARIES). This ARIES program aims to convert back into productive cultivation those farmers who have lapsed into opium cultivation in this conflict-ravaged region. WOCCU, which is associated with AED, will receive USD 15.4 mn as a grant and the remaining USD 4 mn will be in the form of a convertible subordinated debt to equity investment in the project IFCs.

The USD 8.3 mn from MISFA will be specifically used to set up 5 IFCs in Northern Afghanistan. WOCCU started its Afghanistan operations in collaboration with MISFA in 2004 with a USD 1.1 mn program. By the end of 2005, nearly 3000 Afghans are members of two credit unions in Mazhar-e-Sharif and Sheberkhan, both in Northern Afghanistan. The success of these two operations seems to have been the driver for additional funding not just from MISFA but also from USAID.
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