Event Name: Microfinance Egypt Summit
Event Dates: March 23-24, 2016
Event Location: The Nile Ritz-Carlton Cairo, Egypt
Category: Trends/Challenges
MICROFINANCE PUBLICATION ROUND-UP: Legislation for Client Protection; Consumer Satisfaction in India; Women’s Financial Inclusion Data
“Client Protection Principles: Model Law and Commentary for Financial Consumer Protection;” published by the Microfinance CEO Working Group; April 2015; 66 pages; available at: http://microfinanceceoworkinggroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/CPP-Model-Laws-April-2015.pdf
This publication offers guidelines for creating legislation to protect low-income consumers of financial services.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Vision Fund Zambia, Financial Sector Deepening Zambia to Host Online Event on Savings Groups, Microfinance Institutions During Center for Financial Inclusion’s FI2020 Week
Event Name: Zambia Event, FI2020 Week
Event Date: 8 AM – 4 PM CAT, November 4, 2015
Event Location: Online
Event Cost: Free
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: Symbiotics 2015 Microfinance Investment Vehicles (MIV) Survey Report: Market Data and Peer Group Analysis
“Symbiotics 2015 Microfinance Investment Vehicles (MIV) Survey Report: Market Data and Peer Group Analysis;” published by the Symbiotics Group; 2015; 45 pages; available at http://www.syminvest.com/papers/ed4710d3-cd20-4366-ad75-095f2b3adffe
Symbiotics, a Switzerland-based investment company that is “specialized in emerging, sustainable and inclusive finance,” recently published its ninth annual microfinance investment vehicles (MIVs) survey based on indicators reported by MIVs for 2014.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP) to Host European Microfinance Week 2015, November 18-20, 2015, Abbaye de Neumunster, Luxembourg
Event Name: European Microfinance Week 2015
Event Dates: November 18-20, 2015
Event Location: Abbaye de Neumunster, Luxembourg
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Private Equity Fund, Apis Partners, Raises $157m for Financial Technology Startups in Africa, South Asia
Apis Partners, a London-based private equity firm, has raised USD 157 million in investments for the Apis Growth Fund that it launched in 2014 to target technology firms working in payments, savings, investments, credit and insurance in Africa and South Asia.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: India’s SIDBI Sets up $154m Fund to Support Micro-, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
The government-backed Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) recently announced that it has set up a fund with INR 10 billion (USD 154 million) to provide concessional financing to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the manufacturing sector. As per a statement released by SIDBI, the objective of the fund is to transform the Indian MSME sector into a “world class manufacturing hub” in line with the Indian government’s “make in India” program.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 18th Microfinance Centre Annual Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, November 5-6, 2015
Event Name: Employment, Youth and Investment: What can Microfinance do?
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Uniglobal to Host Fifth Annual Central Asian and Caucasus Microfinance Forum, Tbilisi, Georgia, October 1-2, 2015
Event Name: Fifth Annual Central Asian and Caucasus Microfinance Forum
Event Date: October 1-2, 2015
Event Location: Tbilisi Marriott Hotel, Tbilisi, Georgia
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bank of Ghana Doubles Minimum Capital Requirement for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to $610k As of 2018
The Bank of Ghana (BoG), which serves as the country’s central bank and is mandated to license, regulate and supervise financial institutions, reportedly announced that it has revised the minimum capital requirement for microfinance institutions (MFIs) from GHS 1 million (approximately USD 305,000) to GHS 2 million (approximately USD 610,000).
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Donating up to $6m to World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) for Housing Development in Haiti
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the foreign assistance agency of the US government, recently agreed to give the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), a US-based association of credit union groups in 54 countries, a donation up to USD 6 million under USAID’S “Home Ownership and Mortgage Expansion” (HOME) facility.
SPECIAL REPORT: “More Inclusive Finance for Youth: Scalable and Sustainable Delivery Models for Financial and Non-Financial Services” from e-MFP’s Youth Financial Inclusion Action Group
MicroCapital: What is the motivation for the new study “More Inclusive Finance for Youth: Scalable and Sustainable Delivery Models for Financial and Non-Financial Services,” which was published recently by e-MFP’s Youth Financial Inclusion Action Group?
Severine Deboos: Almost 73 million youth worldwide are looking for work. The UN’s International Labour Office (ILO) considers financial inclusion an important ingredient to fostering youth employment. While young people may need access to services such as savings, credit, insurance and payments, potential employers may need loans to fund apprenticeships.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Bank of Kigali, Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN) Rwanda to Offer Mobile Financial Services
Bank of Kigali, a Rwandan commercial bank, and the Rwandan branch of Mobile Telecommunications Network (MTN), a South Africa-based internet and telecommunications company, recently entered into a partnership that will allow MTN subscribers who are also customers of Bank of Kigali to transfer funds between their Bank of Kigali accounts and MTN’s mobile payments platform, Mobile Money.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sanad, Bankmed Partner to Support Small, Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Lebanon
The Sanad Fund for MSME (micro-, small and medium-sized enterprise) (Sanad), a Luxembourg-based organization that provides “medium- and long-term”[1] debt and equity to financial institutions in the Middle East and North Africa region, has recently announced the disbursement of a loan of USD 15 million to Bankmed, a Lebanese commercial bank regulated by the Central Bank of Lebanon.
SPECIAL REPORT: ACRE Africa, Bima, Microfact, Tech-Innov, UTM, Others Report on New Products for Rural Areas at Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance (SAM) in Dakar, Senegal
As Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance (SAM) began to draw to a close, a range of service providers described their new products and services at an all-day Innovation Fair.
Solenn Marquette of Bima, a Sweden-based insurer operating in 13 developing countries, explained her firm’s strategy for using mobile phones to sell insurance. Although building branches is too expensive, “we still put education teams on ground” to market products. One such product is Tigo Hospitalization, which is offered in Senegal starting at CFA 200 (USD 0.40) per month for up to CFA 30,000 (USD 50) in coverage.
SPECIAL REPORT: Boosting Rural Finance via Collaboration Among AFMIN, AMT Forum, AFRACA, MAIN
Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance (SAM) is a production of four African microfinance networks in collaboration with Luxembourgish NGO ADA. As this is only the second SAM, a session was held this week on how the networks can expand their collaboration to increase their effectiveness in promoting rural finance on the continent.
Davy Serge Azakpame, the CEO of the Benin-based African Microfinance Network, proposed “creat[ing] an advocacy group to pressure government to boost funding for rural areas.”
SPECIAL REPORT: How Holistic Approaches Can Advance Rural Enterprise Through Microinsurance, Technology, Market Research
At the start of the second day of conference sessions at Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance (SAM), Renée Chao-Beroff of the Participatory Microfinance Group for Africa (PAMIGA), a France-based network of 14 African microfinance institutions, argued, “Microfinance has to be with something else to have effect. Standalone financial services are no longer working. We have to question our practices and go to a more holistic approach.” As an example, Mark Rueegg of Swiss microinsurer CelsiusPro explained how his firm distributes some of the satellite data it collects for actuarial purposes directly to farmers via mobile phones. “These data can give optimal planting dates instead of farmers going by what they were taught by their father, their neighbor…. This can allow them to increase their yield dramatically without extra costs, such as for additional fertilizer.”
SPECIAL REPORT: Promoting Partnerships that Support Value Chains at Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance (SAM)
During the opening plenary session of African Microfinance Week, also known as Semaine Africaine de la Microfinance (SAM), the hot topic was partnerships, especially those that support value chains. André Okou of the African Development Bank, explained that his organization aims “to create new synergy by approaching the value chain in an integrated fashion – supporting all parts of the chain, including non-agricultural elements – to tackle constraints.” Raphaël de Guerre of the French government’s Agence Française de Developpement stated, “In Guinea we have added value for coffee producers. In Cameroon, we have increased honey prices by a factor of 3, showing private investors that this is viable.”