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 money-transfer and insurance services in addition to loans. It reported eight branches, return on equity of 15 percent and a 30-day portfolio-at-risk ratio of 1.3 percent as of December 2018. As of 2019, it serves 37,000 active borrowers of whom 58 percent are women and 85 percent live in rural areas.

Agora Microfinance, which has offices in the Netherlands and the UK, operates MFIs in Cambodia, India and Zambia. These MFIs service 1.2 million deposit accounts, 440,000 borrowers and 340,000 microinsurance clients.

GCA Foundation was launched in 2008 by the directors of Credit Agricole, a French retail bank, and Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. The foundation provides funding and technical assistance to microfinance institutions and other social businesses with the aim of promoting financial inclusion and social entrepreneurship. As of May 2019, GCA Foundation has a portfolio of EUR 82.2 million (USD 92.4 million). It supports 81 partners in 38 countries in Africa and Eurasia. These partners serve approximately 4.1 million customers, of whom 74 percent are women and 75 percent live in rural areas.

Sources and Additional Resources

Information provided to MicroCapital by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation

Agora Microfinance homepage
https://agoramicrofinance.com/

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