by the MicroCapital Team -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Visa Foundation Donates $2m to Opportunity International to Support Microfinance, Small-business Lending to Women in Africa

US-based nonprofit microfinance network Opportunity International recently secured a grant of USD 2 million from the Visa Foundation, an affiliate of US-based payments firm Visa. The goal is to facilitate Opportunity in routing an additional USD 14 million via its affiliated financial services providers (FSPs) in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda to micro- and small businesses owned by women. The two-year grant is to fund services for: (1) business owners and farmers, such as training in financial literacy, business management and agricultural practices; and (2) partner FSPs, such as technical assistance in developing gender-oriented policies and financial incentives for serving women, such as guarantees, interest-rate buy-downs and collateral buy-downs. A collateral buy-down – where an FSP might

by Harriet Ritchie -

MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: BlueOrchard Raises $207m in Equity for COVID-19 Emerging and Frontier Markets MSME Support Fund – Adding IDB, Visa Foundation as Investors

BlueOrchard Impact Investment Managers, a member of the UK-based Schroders Group, recently announced it raised USD 207 million in the second close of its COVID-19 Emerging and Frontier Markets MSME Support Fund, which is intended to counter “the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic” among micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in low- and middle-income countries. The new investors in the funding round include IDB Invest, a member of the Inter-American