MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation Loans $1.5m to ACEP Niger, VisionFund Rwanda, LAPO of Sierra Leone

The Luxembourg-based Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation has issued local-currency loans to three microfinance institutions (MFIs), approximately equivalent to the following amounts: USD 550,000 to ACEP Niger, an affiliate of the Agency for Private Enterprise Credit (ACEP) International; USD 540,000 to VisionFund Rwanda, a unit of VisionFund International; and USD 425,000 to LAPO Sierra Leone, an affiliate of Nigeria-based Lift Above Poverty Organization (LAPO). This is the first time that GCA Foundation has invested in any of these countries.

ACEP Niger provides lending and deposit services to small, urban businesses. The MFI has 4,000 clients, including 1,000 women. ACEP International was founded in Senegal in 1989 and has since replicated its model – in chronological order – in Madagascar, Cameroun, Burkina Faso and Niger.

VisionFund Rwanda was founded in 1997 and serves 12,000 active borrowers as of 2019. Of its borrowers, 62 percent are women and 85 percent live in rural areas. Among its strategies is “strengthening and providing financial services to village savings and loan associations.” VisionFund International operates in 29 countries with total assets of USD 688 million and a gross loan portfolio of USD 494 million outstanding to 1.1 million borrowers. VisionFund International is owned by World Vision, a US-based Christian relief and development organization that had 2018 revenue of USD 1.06 billion.

Established in 2008, LAPO Sierra Leone serves 22,000 active borrowers, of whom 74 percent live in rural areas and nearly all are women. LAPO, established in 1987 in Nigeria, is an MFI that provides savings, investment and loan products intended to address the needs of low-income households. As of 2018, LAPO reported to the US-based nonprofit Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) the following data on its operations in Nigeria: total assets of USD 188 million, a gross loan portfolio of USD 170 million outstanding to 699,000 borrowers and total deposits of USD 85 million held for 3.94 million depositors.

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.

By Eugene DeCosse, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation press release
http://gca-foundation.org/news/the-grameen-credit-agricole-foundation-invests-in-three-new-countries

I&P profile on ACEP Niger
http://www.ietp.com/en/company/acep-niger

I&P profile on ACEP International
http://www.ietp.com/en/content/acep-africa-group-largest-african-microfinance-network-under-development

LAPO Sierra Leone homepage
http://lapo-sl.org/

LAPO (Nigeria) homepage
http://www.lapo-ngo.org/

MIX profile on LAPO (Nigeria)
https://www.themix.org/mixmarket/profiles/lapo-ngr

VisionFund Rwanda webpage
http://www.visionfund.org/2092/rwanda/africa/where/

VisionFund International homepage
http://www.visionfund.org/

VisionFund International financial statements
http://www.visionfund.org/2150/documents-and-reports/media/

World Vision homepage
https://www.worldvision.org/