The Board of the African Development Bank (AfDB), a multilateral institution headquartered in Côte d’Ivoire, recently approved an equity investment of EUR 12 million (USD 13 million) in Yeelen Financial Fund, an investment vehicle that aims to strengthen financial institutions in the eight nations of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, which also is known by its French acronym UEMOA.
Category: Technology
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “API Deployments in Inclusive Finance: Recommendations to Optimize API Deployments Between Banks and Fintechs for Financial Inclusion,” published by Accion’s Center for Financial Inclusion (CFI)
By Dan Kleinbaum, published by the Center for Financial Inclusion, March 2020, 24 pages, available at https://content.centerforfinancialinclusion.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/03/CFI55_API_deployments_FINAL.pdf
Application programming interfaces (APIs), which can facilitate communication among various digital systems, can help integrate “nimble, iterative and product-oriented” financial technology (fintech) firms with traditional financial institutions that have steady customer bases. This can allow for a symbiotic relationship, through which
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Airtel, MTN, UNCDF Partner to Boost Digital Financial Services Ensibuuko Tech, Mobipay Agrosys in Rural Uganda
The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) recently announced a set of partnerships to boost financial inclusion in the Northern and West Nile regions of Uganda. UNCDF will work with
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: To Reduce Spread of COVID-19 in Kenya, Safaricom Suspends Fees for Smaller M-Pesa Mobile Money Transactions, Boosts Maximum Balance, Opens Toll-free Call Center to Answer Coronavirus Questions
At the urging of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, the mobile network operator Safaricom has loosened the terms for Kenyans using its M-Pesa mobile money product for at least the next 90 days. This is intended “to reduce the risk of spreading the [COVID-19] virus through the physical handling of cash.” Customers will pay nothing to send amounts of up to KES 1,000 (USD 9.40). In addition, the Central Bank of Kenya is allowing for a daily M-Pesa transaction limit of
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Fintech Liwwa Raises $21m in Debt, Equity for SME Lending Platform in Egypt, Jordan from Investors Including FMO, 500 Startups, Edgo, EFG-EV, Chris Larsen, Wamda
Jordan-based financial technology (fintech) firm Liwwa recently borrowed USD 15 million to expand its facilitation of loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Egypt and Jordan. Liwwa also raised equity totaling USD 6 million from its previous investors Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), the Netherlands Development Finance Company; Jordan-based Bank al Etihad; Jordan-based Dash Ventures; and US-based VC firm
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Mercy Corps’ AgriFin, UNCDF, Zanaco Bank Roll Out AgriPay Digital Financial Services for Rural Farmers in Zambia
The AgriFin program of US-based NGO Mercy Corps, the UN Capital Development Fund and Zambia National Commercial Bank (Zanaco) recently partnered to create a digital financial services product in Zambia. Within four months, 3,000 farmers – just over half of them women – had enrolled to access the savings and remittances services of the program, dubbed AgriPay. About of a third of the users are
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Quona Capital Closes Accion Quona Inclusion Fund with $203m for Fintechs
Venture capital firm Quona Capital, which focuses on financial inclusion via technology in emerging markets, recently closed its second fund, the Accion Quona Inclusion Fund, at a volume of USD 203 million. Accion, a US-based nonprofit, is the anchor investor in the fund, which had an initial target of
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EBRD Lending $8.5m to Minsk Transit Bank (MTBank) for Microfinance, SME Finance in Belarus
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), a UK-based multilateral institution, is lending BYB 20 million (USD 8.5 million) to Minsk Transit Bank (MTBank), Belarus’s “largest independent private bank,” for on-lending to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). The loan is denominated in local-currency to off-load the foreign-exchange risk that Belarusian businesses often take on when borrowing from foreign banks. The funding will also increase the time
SPECIAL REPORT: Highlights of European Microfinance Week 2019
From 
the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP): European Microfinance Week 2019 gathered 450 leading experts from 62 countries to showcase the most exciting innovations advancing sustainable and responsible financial
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Tarayana Foundation Offers Rural Microfinance, Mobile Repayments via B-Ngultrum of Bhutan Telecom
Tarayana Micro Finance recently became licensed as a microfinance institute (MFI), independent of its incubator, the Tarayana Foundation of Bhutan. The MFI provides individual and group loans in rural areas, with interest rates of 15 percent. Smaller “classic” loans support existing enterprises, while larger loans are available for “pre-selected livelihood models with a proven market and reliable value chain.” These larger “development” loans are disbursed in the form of “materials and
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: FMO Considering $5m Equity Investment in Innoviti Payment Solutions, Provider of Loans, Cashless Payments to MSMEs, Consumers in India
The Netherlands Development Finance Company, which is also known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently expressed interest in the possibility of placing an equity investment in Innoviti Payment Solutions, a digital financial services provider in India. The transaction would be disbursed in the amount of
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “The Digital Lives of Refugees: How Displaced Populations Use Mobile Phones and What Gets in the Way,” Published by GSMA
This is a summary of a paper published by the Groupe Speciale Mobile Association (GSMA), July 2019, 87 pages, available at https://www.gsma.com/mobilefordevelopment/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/The-Digital-Lives-of-Refugees.pdf
Mobile technology in general, as well as mobile network operators in particular, are becoming increasingly important to the delivery of aid to populations in crisis. This report addresses the access to, use of, and barriers to mobile technology among refugee populations.
The authors conducted 3,000 face-to-face and telephone interviews as well 55 focus group discussions with refugees from Jordan, Rwanda and
MICROFINANCE EVENT: MEDA Innovate Learning Event; March 17, 2020; Ottawa, Canada – CANCELED
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELED.
Presenters at this event will share testimony on “designing, testing, and scaling non-traditional finance solutions and agricultural technologies for smallholder farmers.” Other topics will include
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: ACEP International, BIO, I&P Creating ACEP Group to Help Microfinance Providers in Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Madagascar, Niger Transform into Digital Institutions
The recently formed ACEP Group has acquired controlling stakes in three microfinance institutions (MFIs), ACEP Burkina Faso, ACEP Madagascar and ACEP Niger; and ACEP Cameroun “is aiming to join” the group as well. The creators of ACEP Group are the Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) International, a private company whose ownership includes its co-founder Thierry Perreau; Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), a France-based investor in small and medium-sized enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa; and the government-owned Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, which is also known by its Dutch acronym BIO.
The goals of the group include to maintain the MFIs’ commitments to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nvio Pagos México Awarded 1st Fintech License from Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores
The Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores (CNBV), Mexico’s banking and securities commission, recently licensed Nvio Pagos México to operate as a fintech firm. While 85 firms have applied for such licenses, this is the first to have been awarded under the Mexican government’s Financial Technology (Fintech) Institution Law,
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Results of the Fintech Benchmarks Proof-of-Concept: Toward Data Standards for Inclusive Fintech,” Published by MIX
This is a summary of a paper published by the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX), January 2020, 45 pages, available at https://www.themix.org/s/MIX_Toward-Data-Standards-for-Inclusive-Fintech_January2020.pdf
To test its Data Standards for Inclusive Fintech, MIX asks, “What can we learn about fintechs as businesses and how they address challenges of inclusion?” Based on information from 45 fintechs, the majority of which are based in Sub-Saharan Africa, this exercise produced
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Banco Central de Brasil Launching Instant Payment Platform Pix for Merchant, P2P, G2P Payments
By November 2020, Banco Central de Brasil aims to roll out an instant payment platform called Pix, which will use images known as
MEDIA OF THE MONTH: Video Summary of SAM 2019, also Known as African Microfinance Week, in Burkina Faso
This five-minute video gives you a taste of what happened when 900 participants from 50 countries met for the 2019 SAM conference in Ouagadougou.
This post is part of a monthly series from MicroCapital pointing you to great media on microfinance and other forms of impact investing. Enjoy!
MicroCapital coverage of the last three SAM conferences, including vignettes demonstrating its value to participants, appears at http://www.microcapital.org/category/semaine-africaine-de-la-microfinance-sam/.
Do you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at http://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.