The Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg,
has recently announced it has provided a loan of EUR 1.2 million (USD 1.2 million) to Microinvest, a Moldova-based microfinance institution. Established in 2003 and majority-held by the Balkan Financial Sector Equity Fund, Microinvest offers financial education as well as collateral-based and collateral-free loans for business, agriculture, housing, vehicles and consumption. The organization serves 54,000 people via 16 service locations staffed by 240 people. For 2021, Microinvest reported net income of MDL 144 million (USD 7.4 million), return on equity of 31 percent and return on assets of 4.9 percent, ending the year with a loan portfolio of MDL 3.0 billion (USD 154 million) and total assets of MDL 3.3 billion (USD 170 million).
Crédit Agricole, a French retail bank, in partnership with Muhammad Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, established GCA Foundation in 2008. The organization seeks to reduce poverty by providing funding and technical assistance to microfinance institutions and other social businesses. As of 2022, it manages assets valued at EUR 89 million (USD 89 million) outstanding to 75 partners in 36 countries in Africa and Eurasia. These partners’ beneficiaries are mainly women living in rural areas.
Crédit Agricole was established in 1885 to provide agricultural loans in France. As of December 2021, it serves 53 million people in 47 countries. It values its assets under management at EUR 2.6 trillion (USD 2.6 trillion) as of March 2022.
By Renata Samadova, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
GCA Foundation press release
https://www.gca-foundation.org/en/media-room/#the-foundation-is-pursuing-its-activity-in-eastern-europe
Microinvest homepage
https://microinvest.md
Microinvest financial data
https://microinvest.md/en/dezvaluirea-informatiei/
GCA Foundation profile on Microinvest
https://www.gca-foundation.org/en/organisation/microinvest-2
Previous MicroCapital article on GCA Foundation
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-monte-credit-borrows-600k-from-grameen-credit-agricole-foundation-for-agricultural-business-microfinance-in-montenegro/
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