MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: DAI’s MicroVest Loans $4m to Bayport Colombia, Payroll Lender to Public Sector Workers

US-based MicroVest, a unit of Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI), recently lent USD 4 million to Bayport Colombia, a financial services provider seeking to “expand credit accessibility and financial empowerment” among public sector employees. This transaction marks MicroVest’s third investment in Bayport since 2016.

Established in 2007, Bayport Colombia lends to employees

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Baobab+ Borrows $1.3m from Oikocredit to Boost Household Access to Technology, Solar Energy in Rural Côte d’Ivoire

The Ivorian unit of the France-based renewable energy company Baobab+ recently borrowed EUR 1.2 million (USD 1.3 million) from Dutch cooperative investor Oikocredit. Baobab+ is active in six African countries, primarily selling

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Incofin Places $4.3m in Equity in Varashakti Housing Finance via India Progress Fund

Incofin, a Belgian investor in lower-income countries, has invested INR 350 million (USD 4.3 million) to take an equity stake of undisclosed size in Varashakti Housing Finance (VHF), a firm active in

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Kashf Foundation of Pakistan Borrows in Local Currency from SEB Microfinance Funds, Arranged by Symbiotics

Kashf Foundation, a provider of microloans and microinsurance to women in Pakistan, recently secured a local-currency loan of undisclosed size from SEB Microfinance Funds, an offering of

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CEB, EU Expand Roma Housing Microfinance, Financial Inclusion Program to Bulgaria

The multilateral Council of Europe Development Bank (CEB) and two EU institutions, the European Parliament and the European Commission, recently launched the Housing and Empowerment for Roma (HERO) program in Bulgaria. As part of the program, Tokuda Bank, which is based in the Bulgarian city of Sofia, will provide 200 members of the Roma community with microloans totaling EUR 490,000 (USD 550,000) as well as financial literacy training. The purpose of the loans is to

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: BIO Loans $15m to AMK Microfinance of Cambodia

BIO, a government-owned institution also known as the Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, recently loaned USD 15 million to Cambodia’s Angkor Microheranhvatho Kampuchea (AMK). AMK provides individuals as well as micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises with

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: KEPFIC Member Pension Funds Invest $61m in Acorn Holdings, Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC) to Boost Affordable Housing

Kenya’s Acorn Holdings Africa and the Kenya Mortgage Refinance Company (KMRC) recently won investments from members of the Kenya Pension Funds Investment Consortium (KEPFIC), a group of funds that collaborate to invest in alternative assets. In particular, KEPFIC pension funds placed

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: World Bank’s IDA Lending $15m to Djibouti for Low-income Housing Finance, Policy Reform

The International Development Association (IDA), a unit of the World Bank, recently agreed to lend USD 15 million to Djibouti for a project intended to: (1) scale up an existing partial guarantee fund to boost

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: MicroVest Loans $4.5m to Financiera FAMA for MSMEs in Nicaragua

US-based asset manager MicroVest recently reported disbursing a loan of USD 4.5 million to Financiera FAMA, a microfinance institution (MFI) that was founded as Fundación para el Apoyo a la Microempresa. Established in 1991 and headquartered in the city of Managua, FAMA provides

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation Lends $525k to Smart Credit for Microfinance in Moldova

Smart Credit, a microfinance institution (MFI) operating 12 branch locations in Moldova, recently accepted a local-currency loan approximately equivalent to USD 525,000 from the Luxembourg-based Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation. Founded in 2010, Smart Credit offers

SPECIAL REPORT: Solar-powered Onions in Senegal, Meso-insurance Against Storms in Nicaragua, Performance-based Interest Rate Reductions for Climate-smart Lending in India

e-MFP logoIn a session on strengthening agricultural value chains today at European Microfinance Week, Daphne van Dam of Cordaid described her organization’s work to support onion farmers in Senegal. The farmers were struggling with the cost of fuel for irrigation. Cordaid was able to partner with local microfinance and solar providers to supply farmers with solar-powered irrigation systems that they could pay for on a schedule attuned to the harvest time of their crop.

Magdalena Arbelaez of Incofin described her firm’s work enabling insurance for farmers in Nicaragua. Rather than microinsurance, which would have been unworkable for many of the smallholder farmers in the region, the project extended

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “A Brief Introduction to WASH for Impact Investors;” by Joana Afonso, Sachin Kumar, Alvaro Ma; Published by e-MFP, Aqua for All

This report on funding water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) cites the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation – as well as data indicating 3.6 billion people worldwide have limited access to

MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “The Impact Radar,” Published by UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative

The authors of this report offer a taxonomy to help measure the positive and negative impacts of the products and services of financial institutions, with the aim of enabling these institutions to build a better understanding of various elements of sustainable development. The “impact radar” includes a range of “impact areas” and constituent

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Themed “Inclusive Growth in a Digital Era,” Financial Inclusion Week 2022 Offers 180 Virtual Sessions, October 17-20

For the eighth year, the Center for Financial Inclusion, a program of the US-based NGO Accion, is organizing Financial Inclusion Week, an opportunity for all stakeholders to attend virtual sessions – both live and on-demand – at no charge. The theme for 2022 is “Inclusive Growth in a Digital Era,” with sessions covering 14 topics such as Climate Change, Client Protection,

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sonata Borrows $6m from MicroVest for Group Microlending to Women in Rural India

Sonata Finance, a provider of loans and insurance to women in India, recently borrowed USD 6 million from MicroVest, a debt-focused asset manager owned by US-based DAI Global. Founded in 2006, Sonata serves 700,000 borrowers on a cash-free basis via 460 branches. While most of the microfinance institution’s loans are to groups of women conducting rural enterprise, the institution also offers

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation Loans $1.9m to ACF for Microfinance in Kazakhstan

Asian Credit Fund (ACF), a rural microfinance institution (MFI) in Kazakhstan, recently borrowed approximately USD 2 million from the Luxembourg-based Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation. Founded in 1997 by the US-based NGO Mercy Corps, ACF provides

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Crédit Agricole Lends $1.2m to Microfinance Institution Microinvest of Moldova

The Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg,
has recently announced it has provided a loan of EUR 1.2 million (USD 1.2 million) to Microinvest, a Moldova-based microfinance institution. Established in 2003 and majority-held by the Balkan Financial Sector Equity Fund, Microinvest offers