MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: REGMIFA Raises $10m from FMO to Invest in MSMEs in Sub-Saharan Africa

Recently, the Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa (REGMIFA), a fund that invests in micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in 19 countries, accepted an investment of USD 10 million from Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden (FMO), a Dutch public-private partnership. The purpose of REGMIFA is to encourage economic development and reduce poverty by bolstering income generation and employment. The new funding increases the volume of REGMIFA to about USD 160 million.

Established in 1970, FMO is 51-percent held by the Dutch government and 49-percent by private investors. The institution works towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by funding capacity development and placing debt and equity investments in sectors such as agribusiness, financial institutions and energy. During the year ending December 2020, FMO lost EUR 205 million (USD 245 million) on a total portfolio of EUR 12 billion (USD 14.3 billion).

Symbiotics, an investing platform based in Switzerland, serves as fund advisor to REGMIFA.
Founded in 2004, Symbiotics provides for-profit investment intermediary and business services to investors and practitioners of MSME development as well as funders of low- and middle-income households. The company reports a direct investment portfolio of USD 2.3 billion, with its local financing intermediaries serving 1.6 million small businesses and households at “the base of the pyramid” in 77 emerging markets as of 2019.

By Teo Lin-Bianco, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

FMO press release
https://www.fmo.nl/news-detail/3170b219-f32e-4e81-8f3f-0e20dfd594cc/fmo-invests-usd-10-million-in-the-regional-msme-investment-fund-for-sub-saharan-africa-(regmifa)

REGMIFA homepage
https://regmifa.com/

FMO homepage
https://www.fmo.nl/

SDGs homepage
https://sdgs.un.org/goals

Symbiotics homepage
https://symbioticsgroup.com/

Previous MicroCapital news on REGMIFA
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-regional-msme-investment-fund-for-sub-saharan-africa-regmifa-raises-24m-from-bmz-via-kfw/

Previous MicroCapital news on FMO
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-northern-arc-borrows-25m-from-fmo-to-fund-institutions-serving-women-msmes-in-india/

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