MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: CAURIE Microfinance of Senegal Borrows $1.4m from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation, Mostly for Rural Women

Coopérative Autonome pour le Renforcement des Initiatives Économiques par la Micro finance (CAURIE-MF), a microfinance institution in Senegal, recently borrowed the approximate equivalent of USD 1.4 million from the Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg. Based in the city of Thies, CAURIE-MF serves about 80,000 women, including 48,000 in rural areas. In 2005, the cooperative became independent from its founding entities, Caritas Senegal and Catholic Relief Services, a US-based NGO. Caritas Senegal is one of 160 members of Italy-based Caritas Internationalis, a Catholic confederation working to “build a world based on justice and fraternal love.”

GCA Foundation was established in 2008 by Credit Agricole, a French retail bank, in partnership with Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank. The organization seeks to reduce poverty by providing funding and technical assistance to microfinance institutions and other social businesses. As of June 2020, GCA Foundation had commitments of EUR 92 million (USD 105 million) outstanding to 83 partners in 40 countries in Africa and Eurasia. These partners serve approximately 8.6 million customers, of whom 85 percent are women and 82 percent live in rural areas.

Sources and Additional Resources

Direct contact with GCA Foundation

Caurie homepage
http://caurie-mf.info

Caritas Internationalis homepage
https://www.caritas.org

Catholic Relief Services homepage
https://www.crs.org

Did you know that MicroCapital publishes the MicroCapital Monitor newspaper each month? Find out more at http://www.microcapital.org/products-page/.