Kenyan microlender Musoni recently took on its sixth shareholder, selling a stake of unspecified size for KES 100 million (USD 1 million) to Fonds Européen de Financement Solidaire (Fefisol), a fund managed by Alterfin, which is a Belgian investor in microfinance and fair trade. Fefisol has funded Musoni via debt since 2014.
Musoni CEO Stanley Munyao was quoted as saying, “Fefisol has been an ideal partner in our rural expansion strategy and we look forward to their invaluable support as we accelerate our financing of smallholder farmers and value chains and improving of rural area living standards.”
Founded in 2010, Musoni provides loans to smallholder farmers and informal enterprises in sizes ranging from KES 500 (USD 5) to KES 3 million (USD 30,000) at monthly interest rates of 1.67 percent for individual loans and 1.83 percent for group loans.
Musoni’s other shareholders are the US-based Access Africa Fund, German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the Dutch cooperative Oikocredit, Musoni Investments and the US-based Grameen Foundation. As of 2018, the microlender has 23 branches and KES 1.2 billion (USD 12 million) in loans outstanding to 25,000 individuals and groups.
Alterfin reports EUR 67 million (USD 82 million) invested in 140 organizations as of December 2016. These organizations serve 1.4 million people, of whom 70 percent live in rural areas and 61 percent are women.
Sources and Additional Resources:
Business Daily Africa article
https://www.businessdailyafrica.com/markets/marketnews/Luxembourg-firm-invests-Sh100m-in-microfinancier-Musoni/3815534-4306318-anahlh/index.html
Alterfin on Musoni
https://www.alterfin.be/en/project/musoni-kenya-when-microcredit-goes-mobile
Fefisol
https://www.alterfin.be/en/news/fefisol-fund-apart
Alterfin 2016 Annual Report
https://www.alterfin.be/sites/default/files/files/Annual%20Report%202016.pdf
About the Access Africa Fund
Formed in 2010 by the nonprofit CARE International, Access Africa Fund is a for-profit limited liability company domiciled in the US state of Delaware. The objective of the fund is to provide social impact and capital appreciation by lending local currency to and making strategic equity investments in microfinance institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.
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