The Netherlands Development Finance Company, which also is known by its Dutch acronym FMO, recently disbursed a loan of EUR 3 million (USD 3.5 million) to Agence de Crédit pour l’Entreprise Privée (ACEP) Burkina Faso to support its lending to microenterprises as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). FMO sourced the funding from MASSIF, an investment vehicle it manages for the Dutch government that is meant to act as “a catalyst for the private financial sector, while stimulating financial inclusion in developing countries.”
ACEP Burkina, a member of the ACEP Group, aims to fight poverty through the provision of financial services. Microenterprises comprise 80 percent of its loan portfolio, and the remainder is outstanding to SMEs. Created in 2009, ACEP Burkina has seven branches, 194 employees and a credit portfolio of EUR 35 million (USD 41 million).
In addition to Burkina Faso, ACEP Group has microfinance institution (MFI) members in Cameroon, Madagascar and Niger. The remaining unit of the group is ACEP Conseil, which provides management consulting services to ACEP MFIs. The creators of the ACEP Group include Investisseurs & Partenaires (I&P), a France-based investor in SMEs in sub-Saharan Africa, and the government-owned Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries, which is also known by its acronym BIO. ACEP Group has 1,300 employees serving 140,000 entrepreneurs with a loan portfolio of EUR 110 million (USD 122 million) as of December 2019.
Established in 1970, FMO is 51-percent held by the Dutch government and 49-percent by private sector institutions. The bank works toward the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by funding capacity development as well as placing debt and equity investments in sectors such as agribusiness, financial institutions, energy and clean water. During the six months ending June 2020, FMO lost EUR 280 million (USD 330 million) on a total portfolio of EUR 12.7 billion (USD 14.9 billion).
By Daron Weber, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
FMO press release
https://www.fmo.nl/news-detail/1f0fe00b-6100-4891-82c8-8da7b4a1bf52/fmo-ventures-into-burkina-faso-by-leveraging-on-the-expertise-of-the-acep-microfinance-group
ACEP Group homepage
https://groupacep.com/
ACEP Group network description
https://groupacep.com/Notre-Reseau
ACEP Burkina homepage
https://acep-burkina.business.site
FMO interim report, June 2020
https://annualreport.fmo.nl/2019/interim-report-2020/at-a-glance
BIO description of ACEP Group
https://www.bio-invest.be/en/investments/acep-group
Previous MicroCapital news on ACEP Group
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-ip-bio-creating-acep-group-to-help-microfinance-providers-in-burkina-faso-cameroun-madagascar-niger-transform-into-digital-institutions/
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