The Luxembourg-domiciled Sanad Fund for MSME recently agreed to borrow EUR 15 million (USD 16.5 million) from Algemene Spaarbank voor Nederland (ASN) Bank, a retail banking member of the Netherlands’ de Volksbank, and USD 10 million from the US-based NGO Calvert Impact Capital. Sanad intends to use the fresh funds to facilitate job creation by investing in financial inclusion for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the Middle East and Africa.
Sanad Board Chair Dr Daniela Beckmann stated, “…micro-, small, and medium enterprises account for nearly two thirds of GDP and almost three quarters of employment in the Middle East and North Africa. Yet, they struggle to obtain loans to grow their businesses, which is why ASN Bank and Calvert Impact’s investment will further help Sanad to contribute to their livelihoods.”
The goals of ASN Bank include “banking in a socially responsible way and… promoting sustainable development.” Its parent organization, de Volksbank, also owns the mortgage lender Bouwfonds Limburgse Gemeenten (BLG) Wonen and the retail banks RegioBank and Samenwerkende Nederlandse Spaarbanken (SNS). Together these firms serve 3.3 million customers with a balance sheet of EUR 73 billion (USD 80 billion) as of 2022.
Created in the 1990s, Calvert Impact seeks to address “our most urgent global challenges – climate change, inequality, racial and gender inequities.” As of June 2022, it reports assets totaling USD 675 million deployed in countries of all income levels in Africa, the Americas and Eurasia.
Sanad, whose name can be translated from Arabic as “support,” was founded in 2011 by the German development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). The fund places equity and debt investments in organizations that support MSMEs and lower-income households, such as microfinance institutions, banks, leasing companies and firms that facilitate access to markets. Sanad invests across the Middle East and Africa. Its investors include the Netherlands’ ASN Bank, US-based Calvert Impact Capital; the EU; Germany’s GLS Bank; and development finance institutions of the Austrian, Dutch, German and Swiss governments. As of 2022, Sanad had an outstanding debt portfolio of USD 349 million. It is advised by Germany’s Finance in Motion, which manages assets valued at EUR 3.2 billion (USD 3.4 billion) as of 2022.
By Renata Samadova, Research Associate
Sources and Additional Resources
Sanad press release
https://sanad.lu/latest-updates/asn-bank-and-calvert-impact-invest-in-sanad
ASN Bank homepage
https://www.asnbank.nl
De Volksbank homepage
https://www.devolksbank.nl
Calvert Impact homepage
https://calvertimpact.org
Sanad homepage
https://sanad.lu
Previous MicroCapital article on ASN Bank
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-asn-bank-lends-efse-50m-for-micro-small-enterprises-households-in-europe-western-asia/
Previous MicroCapital article on Calvert Impact
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-citing-impatience-with-the-pace-calvert-impact-restructures-to-boost-microfinance-green-investment/
Previous MicroCapital article on Sanad
https://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-bank-of-africa-sanad-fund-deploying-27m-for-sme-finance-in-morocco/
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