MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sanad Fund for MSME Loans $5m to Al Majmoua for Enterprise, Housing Microfinance in Lebanon

Sanad Fund for MSME, a Luxembourg-based investor in lenders to micro-, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), recently loaned USD 5 million to Al Majmoua, a provider of financial and business development services to underserved groups in Lebanon. The funds are to be on-lent to low-income individuals for housing improvements and to very small enterprises for business needs.

Al Majmoua was formed in 1994 in Lebanon as nonprofit microcredit organization by Save the Children, a UK-based NGO, to support low-income individuals in building businesses. As of 2017, Al Majmoua reported total assets of USD 85 million, a gross loan portfolio of USD 72 million and 72,800 active borrowers. As of 2019, it has 22 branches. The institution does not accept deposits.

Sanad is a public-private partnership that was founded in 2011 and is domiciled in Luxembourg. It is an initiative of German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) and is funded Germany’s GLS Bank; the EU; and the development finance institutions of the Austrian, German and Swiss governments. Sanad invests in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Tunisia and Yemen with an emphasis on Egypt and Tunisia. As of 2018, Sanad has total available funding of USD 289 million. It is advised by Germany’s Finance in Motion, which manages assets valued at EUR 1.9 billion (USD 2.2 billion) as of 2018.

By Shuyang Sun, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Sanad press release
https://www.sanad.lu/Press-Releases—2019-02-26-SANAD-and-Al-Majmoua-advance-financial-inclusion-in-Lebanon——_site.index..html_dir._siteid.67_nav._entryid.575_likecms.html

Al Majmoua home page
www.almajmoua.org

MIX profile: Al Majmoua
https://www.themix.org/mixmarket/profiles/al-majmoua

Sanad home page
www.sanad.lu

Sanad fact sheet
https://www.sanad.lu/media/finance/Sanad%20at%20a%20glance%20english%20Q3_2018.pdf

Finance in Motion home page
www.finance-in-motion.com

Finance in Motion impact report
https://www.finance-in-motion.com/fileadmin/user_upload/06_publications/Finance_in_Motion_Impact_Investment_Report_2017.pdf

MicroCapital Brief: Sanad Fund for MSME Loans $5m to The National Bank (TNB) of the Palestinian Territories for Microfinance
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-sanad-fund-for-msme-loans-5m-to-the-national-bank-tnb-of-the-palestinian-territories-for-microfinance/

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