HomeSend, a software platform facilitating remittance transactions, and the government-backed Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE) recently announced the intention to launch remittance services in Ethiopia by the end of 2016.
Category: Trends/Challenges
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Kenyan Government Caps Bank Lending Rates, Sets Minimum Deposit Rates
The government of Kenya recently passed legislation to cap the interest rates on bank loans at 4 percent per year above an undisclosed benchmark reference rate and also set the minimum deposit interest rate at 70 percent of the reference rate.
SPECIAL REPORT: A Preview of European Microfinance Week’s “New Frontiers on SPM: Measuring Client Outcomes”
MicroCapital: What is the value of social performance management (SPM)?
Lucia Spaggiari & Amelia Greenberg: Financial service providers (FSPs) do not achieve their social goals without deliberately managing their social performance. Providing access to financial products and services can have a neutral or even harmful effect when it is not done responsibly. Even the best-intentioned FSPs have been shocked upon seeing their first data about client outreach, satisfaction and exit. Simply put, they were not reaching their target clients; their products were not well adapted to clients’ needs; and they were not achieving their missions.
MC: What social performance outcomes are you measuring?
MICROFINANCE PUBLICATION ROUND-UP: Correlations Between Financial, Social MFI Performance; Banking for a Better World; A Case for Partnerships Among Corporations, Social Enterprises
“Where Good Intentions Meet Good Business Practice”; by Meraj Husain and Micol Pistelli; published by the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX); August 2016; 16 pages; available at: https://www.themix.org/sites/default/files/publications/where_good_intentions_meet_good_business_practice_mix_august_2016_final.pdf
Drawing upon Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX)’s database of financial service provider (FSP) performance indicators, the authors examine the relationship between the social and financial performance of 780 FSPs in 98 countries.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Pan-African SME Finance Summit POSTPONED
Event Name: First Pan-African Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME) Finance Summit: Accelerating Performance Through Innovation
Event Date: FORMERLY SCHEDULED FOR November 22 – November 23, 2016 NEW DATES AND LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED
Event Location: FORMERLY SCHEDULED FOR Radisson Blu Hotel, Elgon Road, Nairobi, Kenya NEW DATES AND LOCATION TO BE ANNOUNCED
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nepalese Microfinance Institutions Invest in Nepal Finsoft to Develop MIS Software
A group of Nepalese microfinance organizations is investing in Nepal Finsoft Limited, an information technology (IT) company based in Kathmandu, to develop a banking management information system (MIS) the thirty-four institutions hope will provide them with “increased efficiency and capacity to serve clients [and] lower overall costs of the infrastructure shared by all participating financial institutions.”
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CGAP, Citi Foundation Launch Digital Financial Inclusion Policy Program in China, Indonesia, Philippines
CGAP (Consultative Group to Assist the Poor), a US-based, nonprofit research center that aims to facilitate the expansion of financial access, and the Citi Foundation, the charitable arm of US-based financial services firm Citigroup, recently launched the “East Asia Digital Financial Inclusion Program”.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: East Africa Microfinance Summit, November 2-4, 2016, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Event Name: East Africa Microfinance Summit
Event Date: November 2 – November 4, 2016
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: JazzCash Mobile Money Users in Pakistan to Gain Access to Merchants Accepting Visa Cards
JazzCash, a mobile money service of Pakistan-based cellular phone network Mobilink, and Visa, a US-based payment technology company, recently announced that JazzCash Mobile Account customers will be able to make purchases from the millions of merchants worldwide that accept Visa payment cards, including approximately 50,000 retail outlets in Pakistan.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bangladeshi Farmers to Receive Microloans via Credit Cards Arranged by CARE Bangladesh, DAM, mPower, USAID
The Agricultural Extension Support Activity (AESA) of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is implemented by the Bangladesh-based nonprofit Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM), is piloting an initiative to provide smallholder farmers with loans via bank cards.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Cracking the Nut Conference, March 27 – 28, 2017, Bangkok, Thailand
Event Name: Cracking the Nut 2017
Event Dates: March 27 – March 28, 2017; Agriculture Value Chain Finance Training, March 29 – March 30, 2017
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Aflatoun to Host Annual International Meeting on Social, Financial Education, November 2-4, 2016, The Hague, the Netherlands
Event Name: Aflatoun International Meeting 2016: Social and Financial Education Contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
Event Date: November 2 – November 4, 2016
Event Location: World Trade Center, Prinses Beatrixlaan 582, The Hague, the Netherlands
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Indian Banks Deceptively Reduce Number of Zero-Balance Accounts Under Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana Financial Inclusion Effort
Although the proportion of zero-balance bank accounts opened under India’s Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) program was reduced from 76 percent in January 2015 to 24 percent as of September 2016, it recently has been reported that this is not due to customer deposits.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Institutions Adie, microStart, Taysir Launch Free Online Training for Microentrepreneurs
Microfinance institutions (MFIs) Adie, which offers financial services and related training in France; microStart, which works with small businesses in Belgium; and Taysir, which funds microenterprises and small-scale farms in Tunisia, recently launched an online training platform for microentrepreneurs and small-business owners.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: WeConnect, Airbnb, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, HP Make Commitments to Women, Entrepreneurship, Education at 12th, Final Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting
At the recent 12th annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), a program of the US-based nonprofit Clinton Foundation, various organizations made 25 new commitments worth USD 70 million as part of the “Girls, Women and the Global Goals” project, which is intended to “advance women’s economic participation, address violence against girls and women, and promote women’s leadership in the public and private sectors”,
SPECIAL REPORT: Rajnish Dhall of Micro Housing Finance Corporation, Mark van Doesburgh of Triple Jump Preview European Microfinance Week Session on Micromortgages, More
MicroCapital: How does housing finance differ from traditional microfinance?
Rajnish Dhall: In India, traditional microloans usually are: (1) sized less than USD 1,000; (2) targeted for productive assets; (3) priced at around 22 percent per year; (4) repaid within less than a year or two; and (5) carry a group guarantee in lieu of collateral. In contrast, the micromortgages that Micro Housing Finance Corporation (MHFC) offers first-time homebuyers: (1) average about USD 8,000 in size; (2) carry interest rates of about 12.5 percent per year; (3) usually have a term of 15 years; (4) are individual rather than group-based; and (5) most importantly, are secured with the home as collateral. While the audience is quite similar, the products are almost at opposite ends of the spectrum.
Mark van Doesburgh: The MicroBuild Fund (MBF) we manage for Habitat for Humanity
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) Investor Forum, December 7-8, 2016, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Event Name: Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN) Investor Forum 2016
Event Date: December 7 – December 8, 2016
Event Location: NH Collection Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky, Dam 9 1012 JS, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
MICROFINANCE PUBLICATION ROUND-UP: Role of Impact Investing in Achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals; Microfinance Investment Vehicle Survey; Lessons from Tanzania’s Digitization Efforts
“Achieving The Sustainable Development Goals: The Role of Impact Investing;” published by The Global Impact Investing Network; September 12, 2016; 9 pages; available at https://thegiin.org/knowledge/publication/sdgs-impinv
This report profiles impact investors that have leveraged the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the following purposes: (1) as a framework to communicate their social impact goals; (2) to develop new or realign existing investment strategies and; (3) to attract capital from private investors that are new to impact investing.