The Netherlands Development Finance Company, which is also known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently issued a loan of USD 10 million to the unit of Nigeria’s Access Bank Plc that operates in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to increase its financing of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Category: Deals
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EBRD Issues $20m Credit Line to Ipoteka Bank of Uzbekistan to Increase Microfinance, SME Lending
Micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Uzbekistan are due to gain increased access to financing via a loan in the amount of EUR 18 million (USD 20 million) provided by the UK-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to Uzbekistan’s Ipoteka Bank.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nigerian Fintech Firm OPay Raises $120m in Equity Funding for Digital Payments, Ride Hailing, Food Delivery
OPay, a Nigerian mobile platform for making payments, arranging car rides and ordering deliveries from restaurants, recently raised USD 120 million in equity from 10 investors to scale up in Nigeria and expand to countries such as Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. OPay’s transportation arm, ORide, facilitates up to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Hayman Microfinance of Myanmar Borrows $14m from AGD Bank, BlueOrchard Finance, Maybank, Symbiotics
Hayman Capital (Microfinance) Company Limited, a licensed deposit-taking microfinance institution (MFI) in Myanmar, recently received loans totaling USD 13.75 million to support microlending in the Ayeyarwaddy, Bago, Magway, Mandalay, Nay Pyi Taw, Sagaing and Yangon regions. The MFI is a fully owned subsidiary of Hayman Capital Private Limited, a Singapore-based investment and financial holding group.
The first of Hayman Microfinance’s loans was a 3-year contract of
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Loans $1.7m to EFC Zambia, Provider of Housing, Microenterprise Loans
The Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, has loaned local currency approximately equivalent to USD 1.7 million to Entrepreneur Financial Centre (EFC) Zambia, a microfinance institution offering loans and savings services, mainly in urban areas. Founded in 1996, the microbank offers loans for working capital, invoice
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Wells Fargo, OPIC Commit $108m to Banco Pichincha for MSMEs Supporting, Controlled by Women in Ecuador
The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), an agency of the US government that promotes economic partnerships in countries deemed important to US interests, recently committed to loan USD 100 million to Banco Pichincha of Ecuador for on-lending to micro-, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) that are “owned by, led by, or support women.” Wells Fargo, a US-based financial services provider, also has committed USD 8.5 million to the project, which is expected to reach
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: BNP Paribas Loans $4.2m to Annapurna of India for Microfinance Lending
France-based BNP Paribas recently informed MicroCapital that it has issued a two-year loan of INR 300 million (USD 4.2 million) to Annapurna Finance Private Limited, payable in quarterly installments. Annapurna, a microfinance institution
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MFIs in Africa, Asia, Latin America Borrow $42m from C-Quadrat Dual Return Vision Microfinance Fund, Including ASA International’s Institutions in Ghana, Uganda
Two microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the ASA International network, those in Ghana and Uganda, recently accepted local-currency loans from the Dual Return Vision Microfinance-Local Currency sub-fund of Austria-based C-Quadrat Asset Management. That sub-fund, together with the Dual Return Vision Microfinance sub-fund issued a total equivalent to USD 42 million during October. The other borrowing MFIs are located in Cambodia,
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Through 1st Bond Issue, VisionFund Raises $14m for Microfinance for Women, Farmers
VisionFund International (VFI), which is owned by US-based NGO World Vision, recently issued a bond package in Australia, raising AUD 20 million (USD 13.8 million) to fund microloans, mainly for farmers and non-farming female entrepreneurs who live in poverty. This is the first-ever bond issue by VFI, and the bonds carry a term of 5 years and pay interest of
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Mastercard Foundation Commits $300m to Bring “Young Africa Works” to Ethiopia
The Canada-based Mastercard Foundation recently committed USD 300 million to Ethiopia to expand Young Africa Works, an initiative intended to create job opportunities for 30 million young Africans, 70 percent of whom are women, in 10 countries by 2030. The effort, which was launched in partnership with Ethiopia’s Jobs Creation Commission (JCC), will fund programs that
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Motorcycle Taxi Leasing Company Tugende of Uganda Raises $13m, Looks to Expand Its Boda-boda Finance to Kenya
Uganda’s Tugende, which specializes in leases for motorcycle taxis known as boda-bodas, recently raised USD 13 million from undisclosed sources with the support of Verdant Capital. Of this total, USD 2 million has been disbursed so far. Tugende has 14,000 active leases and a loan book of USD 13.7 million as of September 2019, up four-fold since January 2018. Its 30-day portfolio-at-risk ratio remains below 1 percent, and Verdant calls the firm “robustly profitable.”
Tugende, which translates as “let’s go,” has 16 branches in Uganda and recently received a license to
SPECIAL REPORT: Solar Kits for Reselling Power, Internet Access; Staff Training by Subscription; Free Business Planning Software on Offer as 30 Firms Showcase Inclusive Finance Products at SAM Innovators’ Village (Part Two)
Thirty 
organizations shared their latest products during the Innovators’ Village at the SAM conference held recently in Burkina Faso. Among these was Qotto, a provider of kits that bring solar power and internet to off-grid households. The kits include battery packs and can be used to run appliances such as lamps, televisions and telephone chargers. The system includes an app for tracking usage and allowing Qotto and the owner to share revenue from selling phone recharges or wireless internet access to neighbors.
Eclectics International offers a core banking system for financial services providers (FSPs) that was designed “by Africans for the African market.” Its features allow for loan disbursal via mobile money, as well as integration with
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Agora Microfinance Zambia (AMZ) Borrows $324k from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation
Agora Microfinance Zambia (AMZ) recently borrowed the local-currency equivalent of USD 324,000 from the Luxembourg-based Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation. The loan has a term of three years. During 2018, the microfinance institution (MFI) began offering
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Invest In Visions’ IIV Mikrofinanzfonds Lends $49m to Microfinance Institutions in Ecuador, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico and Timor-Leste – Including $10m to MFI Alternativa 19 del Sur
Germany-based Invest In Visions (IIV) recently loaned USD 10 million to Alternativa 19 del Sur, a microfinance institution (MFI) in Mexico. The investment is one of a group of loans totaling
SPECIAL REPORT: In 1 Day, Over 500 Meetings Between Microfinance Institutions, Funders at SAM Investors’ Fair
In a series of “speed-dating” sessions, 120 microfinance institutions (MFIs) and 24 investors met a total of over 500 times to find out whether they might be good matches for one another. This was during the five-day SAM conference that closed October 25 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The MFIs represented 24 countries. About half were for-profit firms, while about half were organized as cooperatives or NGOs.
Altemius Millinga, the Managing Director of Tanzania’s Yetu Microfinance Bank, tells MicroCapital that the Investors’ Fair “was the best part of SAM because
SPECIAL REPORT: Expanding Rural Finance with Public-private Partnerships in East Africa, Retraining Loan Officers in West Africa
At the session on “Enabling Rural Finance: Multisectoral Collaboration” during last week’s SAM conference, Hedwig Siewertsen of the Africa-based Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) discussed her work helping the government of Kenya experiment with mechanisms to extend the reach of its limited funding for agriculture. In 2016, the government had USD 7 million to invest in agriculture and was considering acting as a lender to disburse that money to the agricultural sector. Recognizing that the government may be better at market facilitation than managing money, AGRA worked with officials to bring in Barclays Bank of Kenya and the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) as partners. As a result, the government was able to leverage its USD 7 million to guarantee USD 23 million in lending from Barclays. This enabled 150,000 farmers as well as 300 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – including producer organizations – to access funding and non-financial assistance, such as help with business planning.
At the same session, Ousmane Thiongane of the Senegalese microfinance institution network U-IMCEC, described his organization’s struggles entering the agriculture sector. Despite agriculture being a risky proposition, the organization’s mission demanded that it serve rural areas. At first, he explained, “our rural agents weren’t well trained” in agriculture and thus the entry into rural areas “was a complete failure.” With agents lacking basic
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EFSE Launches “Power of Local Currency” Campaign in Eastern Europe with Investments in TBC Bank, BasisBank of Georgia; Belarusky Narodny Bank of Belarus; Araratbank of Armenia
The European Fund for Southeast Europe (EFSE), a microfinance investment vehicle domiciled in Luxembourg, recently launched a campaign promoting local-currency funding in Eastern Europe, with the financial support of the EU’s “EU4Business” initiative. Among the first borrowers under this “Power of Local Currency” campaign was
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Trustco of Namibia Earns Higher Rating by Extending Debt Term, Supporting Interests in Finance, Education, Real Estate, Mining
Namibia-based Trustco Group Holdings, whose members include the Institute for Open Learning (IOL), Trustco Finance, Trustco Bank, Trustco Life, Trustco Insurance and Trustco Resources, recently negotiated a term extension with its lender group. Subsequently, Mauritius-based GCR Ratings increased Trustco Group’s financial rating to