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Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria Approves $27.2m Loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for Rural Microfinance
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria, presided over by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, approved a USD 27.2 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), as reported by AllAfrica.com. The loan, along with a USD 400,000 grant from IFAD, will constitute the core financing of IFAD’s Rural Finance Institution-Building Programme (RFIBP), a seven-year plan to strengthen rural microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Nigeria as well as establish increased linkages between MFIs and mainstream financial institutions.

KfW Entwicklungsbank, Development Arm of German Bank, Lends $14.7m to Moroccan Microfinance Institution (MFI) Fondation pour le Développement Local et le Partenariat (FONDEP)
The Microfinance Capital Markets Newsletter of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) reported that KfW Entwicklungsbank, the emerging-economy financing arm of a German banking group, issued a loan of EUR 10 million (USD 14.7 million) to the Fondation pour le Développement Local et le Partenariat (FONDEP), a Morocco-based non-governmental organization (NGO). The loan accompanies a convention of partnership signed by both parties that aims to establish a basis for future collaborations. The loan is refundable over eight years with a grace period of two years.
Citi Foundation Creates $11.2m Program with SEEP Network to Strengthen Trade Associations
The Citi Foundation will work with the Small Enterprise Education and Promotion Network (SEEP) to create the 3-year USD 11.2 million Citi Network Strengthening Program. The program will include 12 major microfinance trade associations and their members. The program’s goal will be to improve the integration of microfinance into the mainstream economies of developing countries. This includes improving participating trade associations’ ability to develop products and services which meet their clients’ needs. In addition, the program seeks to “enhance the industry’s infrastructure, introduce higher standards of management and governance, and promote the vital role of microfinance in providing the poor with access to financial services.”
Nigerian Government Creates $426m Microcredit Development Fund
Nigerian President Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua announced the creation of an N50 billion (the equivalent of over USD 426 million) microcredit development fund to be administered by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The new fund will be used to provide existing microfinance institutions (MFIs) with funding for credit creation and operational expenses.

Micro-Start Program: Local Technical Services Provider - Impact Study of the Zakoura Microcredit Program
Zakoura Micro-Crédit (ZMC) is the microfinance arm of the Zakoura Foundation, a national NGO devoted to increasing the quality of life of the most underprivileged Moroccans. ZMC provides credit and training to a target market of economically disadvantaged women using a solidarity group methodology. Between its founding in 1995 and September 2000, ZMC had disbursed 82,814 loans totaling 121,489,000 Dirhams. Its current repayment rate is 99.69%
Creating Effective Capacity Building Relationships
MicroStart's use of TSPs is an experiment in creating a new framework for capacity building. The original design sprang from the recognition that the standard CTA model in use throughout UNDP projects was not the best way to support the development of microfinance institutions.

Does It Make Sense for UNDP to Help Launch Small and New Organizations?
The most fundamental question that this evaluation addresses is the validity of UNDP's decision to build a program focused on supporting small MFIs.

AfriCap Microfinance Fund Attracts Notable Investors Including Nordic MicroCap, BlueOrchard and Gray Ghost, Raises Capital to $50m
AfriCap Microfinance Fund, established in 2001 as the first African private equity fund dedicated to the microfinance industry, has closed a second round of investment, raising its capital from USD 14 million (Sh 910 million) to USD 50 million (Sh 3.25 billion).
Increasing Microfinance’s Reach with Integrated Services
The destitute—individuals at the very bottom of the socioeconomic scale—are still outside the current scope of most microfinance institutions.
Improving Microfinance as an Anti-Poverty Tool
As Father Joseph Philippe, the co-founder of the Haitian MFI Fonkoze, states: “You can’t just give a woman a loan and then send her on her way - you have to accompany her as she struggles to make her way out of poverty.”
A Second Chance
Beatriz's story - Honduras

Paving a New Path
Mariana's story - East Timor

Principle IV: Prioritize Operational Efficiency
Key Principles for an African Model of Microfinance
IV Module I Key Principles for an African Model of Microfinance
African microfinance is as diverse as the continent itself. An array of approaches have been used, ranging from traditional kinship networks and Revolving Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs) to NGOs and development projects, and funded by both the informal and formal financial sectors, as well as domestic and international and donors. Consequently, examples of African microfinance offer an array of lessons of what works and doesn't work.
3.4 Making money work for poverty reduction: Working Out of Poverty
The incomes of working people living in poverty are not only low, but also volatile. Poor people, aware of the risks of not having sufficient earnings to meet daily needs, tend to save proportionally more than families with more secure, higher incomes. However, most banks do not offer savings and loan facilities to poor people. Many must hide their savings in cash somewhere and, when they need a loan, resort to the local moneylender for credit at onerous rates of interest. Microfinance is the provision, on a sustainable basis, of financial services such as credit, savings, insurance, payments and guarantees to poor people generally outside the reach of the formal financial market.
Report from the Field: Incorporating Microfinance into Kenya's Economic Recovery Strategy
With a population of 30 million people and a per capita income of US$260, Kenya is categorized the 20th poorest country in the world.[1] Estimates indicate that about 47% of the rural population and 29% of the urban population live under conditions of absolute poverty, where malnutrition and seasonal famine are not just a consistent fear, but also a frequent reality in their lives. On the other hand, the unemployment rate, currently estimated at between 25% and 35%, threatens to get out of hand as roughly 0.5 million school dropouts continue to join the ranks of the unemployed every year.
Technology Innovations at Grameen Foundation USA
How will easy, affordable and reliable access for a person in a remote village be provided? When will this person have the ability to make a simple one-minute call, send a complaint to the local government, or make a loan payment without undo cost or travel difficulty? The microfinance industry is answering these questions with technological innovations.

Managing Foreign Exchange Risk: The Search for an Innovation to Lower Costs to Poor People
There is currently much debate over whether commercial investments in microfinance pass foreign exchange risk exposure to poor clients through high interest rates - i.e., whether foreign investment in microfinance is expensive for poor people. But what makes foreign currency exposure such a problem?
International Year of Microcredit Advisors Visit Kenya and Uganda: Princess Maxima, Diederik Laman Trip and Marilou van Golstein Brouwers Promote Microfinance on the Continent
In the third week of February 2005, The Netherlands' Princess Maxima, ING Netherlands Chairman Diederik Laman Trip and Triodos Bank Senior Fund Manager Marilou van Golstein Brouwers visited Africa to promote the International Year of Microcredit and the importance of microfinance in the global fight to eradicate poverty.

African Countries Focus on Microfinance: Twelve African Nations Engaged in the International Year of Microcredit to Date
Half of the population in Africa lives on less than one dollar a day. More than half the population has no access to safe drinking water. More than two million infants die annually before reaching their first birthday.[1] Such is the harsh reality of the scale of poverty in Africa. The Millennium Development Goals and the objective to halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015 has driven a number of regional and national initiatives focused on poverty eradication in Africa based on local needs and priorities.

IFC and Microfinance in Africa: Building Strong Commercial Institutions
The International Finance Corporation (IFC)-the private sector arm of the World Bank Group-has $4 billion invested in various kinds of financial institutions in 88 countries: including banks, leasing companies, credit rating agencies, and pension funds. IFC also has $256 million invested in 56 microfinance institutions in 38 countries, reaching more than 1.3 million clients. Institutions in Southern Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America currently comprise the lion's share of this portfolio, but Africa is a growing emphasis as well.

Ugandan Government Initiative to Subsidise Solar Power Equipment by 45% to be Implemented by Rural Microfinance Institutions (MFIs)
The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) of Uganda, a semi-autonomous public-private partnership created by the Ugandan Government, has announced a 45% subsidy, up from the current 14%, on all solar power equipment. The subsidy will be will be promoted through a network of rural microfinance institutions (MFIs), and non-government organisations (NGOs), who will be providing a cash payout to those who install the solar systems, or a loan or a loan-offset.
The Citi Foundation Citigroups GrantMaking Arm Pledges USD 100000 to PlanetFinances Microfinance Training Programme in Middle East and North Africa
The Citi Foundation, the grant-making foundation of international financial services firm Citigroup, has pledged a USD 100,000 grant to PlaNet Finance, the French non-profit company that assists microfinance institutions (MFIs), towards the development of a microfinance training curriculum in Arabic. This will be aimed at MFIs in seven Arab countries and delivered through 50 course modules designed to provide them with skills in human resources, planning and strategy, products, accounting, supervision and finance. There will be five-day training sessions in Casablanca, Cairo, Beirut, Amman, Ramallah, Damascus and Sana’a over the next three years.
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Approves Conversion of Community Bank into Microfinance Institution (MFI)
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved the conversion of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Community Bank Limited into a microfinance bank. The community bank has operated on the campus of Olabisi Onabanjo University in Ago-Iwoye, Nigeria since March of 2003, and the majority of its shareholders are affiliated with the university. One source reports that, in its first year in business, the bank made a surplus that was “far in excess of its total paid up capital,” but no other sources were found to corroborate this information and no further information was found on the OOU Community Bank.
Realising the potential of microfinance
Microfinance is a key strategy in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and in building global financial systems that meet needs of most poor people. Although microfinance has demonstrated the potential to reduce poverty, its impacts have varied. Perhaps as a result of these inconsistencies, few donors have prioritised microfinance in their strategies to achieve the MDGs.
Grameen Foundation partners with local Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda to Relaunch Village Phone Initiative
The Grameen Foundation, a non-profit organization that tries to replicate the Grameen Bank microfinance model around the world through a global network of partner microfinance institutions, is relaunching its Village Phone initiative in Rwanda in collaboration with MTN Rwanda (a telecommunications company). The project, called Village Phone Rwanda Tel’imbere has four local microfinance institutions (MFIs) as partners. The project was initially launched in 2006, after a successful pilot scheme had run for a year.

Grameen Foundation partners with local Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda to Relaunch Village Phone Initiative
The Grameen Foundation, a non-profit organization that tries to replicate the Grameen Bank microfinance model around the world through a global network of partner microfinance institutions, is relaunching its Village Phone initiative in Rwanda in collaboration with MTN Rwanda (a telecommunications company). The project, called Village Phone Rwanda Tel’imbere has four local microfinance institutions (MFIs) as partners. The project was initially launched in 2006, after a successful pilot scheme had run for a year.

4.1 Objectives and Coverage of the Regulatory Framework: Microfinance in Africa - Experience and Lessons from Selected African Countries
Overall, the rationale for microfinance regulation is to create a healthy environment for microfinance activities while not stifling the growth of the sector by imposing undue requirements.
3.2 The Roles of Donors and NGOs: Microfinance in Africa Experience and Lessons from Selected African Countries
Donors and NGOs have generally provided support through two main channels: domestic NGOs or donor-managed microfinance projects, and microfinance institutions that function more or less like leasing companies (receiving wholesale external resources and lending to clients).
1.0 Introduction: Microfinance in Africa - Experience and Lessons from Selected African Countries
Small enterprises and most of the poor population in sub-Saharan Africa have very limited access to deposit and credit facilities and other financial services provided by formal financial institutions. For example, in Ghana and Tanzania, only about 5–6 percent of the population has access to the banking sector. This lack of access to financial services from the formal financial system is quite striking, when one considers that in many African countries the poor represent the largest share of the population and that the informal sector is an important part of the economy.

Other microfinance institutions Related Articles

3.2 The Roles of Donors and NGOs: Microfinance in Africa Experience and Lessons from Selected African Countries
Donors and NGOs have generally provided support through two main channels: domestic NGOs or donor-managed microfinance projects, and microfinance institutions that function more or less like leasing companies (receiving wholesale external resources and lending to clients).
Grameen Foundation partners with local Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda to Relaunch Village Phone Initiative
The Grameen Foundation, a non-profit organization that tries to replicate the Grameen Bank microfinance model around the world through a global network of partner microfinance institutions, is relaunching its Village Phone initiative in Rwanda in collaboration with MTN Rwanda (a telecommunications company). The project, called Village Phone Rwanda Tel’imbere has four local microfinance institutions (MFIs) as partners. The project was initially launched in 2006, after a successful pilot scheme had run for a year.

What is microfinance? FAQ
To most, microfinance means providing very poor families with very small loans (microcredit) to help them engage in productive activities or grow their tiny businesses. Over time, microfinance has come to include a broader range of services (credit, savings, insurance, etc.) as we have come to realize that the poor and the very poor who lack access to traditional formal financial institutions require a variety of financial products.

Who are the clients of microfinance? FAQ
The typical microfinance clients are low-income persons that do not have access to formal financial institutions. Microfinance clients are typically self-employed, often household-based entrepreneurs. In rural areas, they are usually small farmers and others who are engaged in small income-generating activities such as food processing and petty trade. In urban areas, microfinance activities are more diverse and include shopkeepers, service providers, artisans, street vendors, etc. Microfinance clients are poor and vulnerable non-poor who have a relatively stable source of income.
What is a Microfinance Institution (MFI)?
Quite simply, a microfinance institution is an organization that offers financial services to low income populations. Almost all of these offer microcredit and only take back small amounts of savings from their own borrowers, not from the general public. Within the microfinance industry, the term microfinance institution has come to refer to a wide range of organizations dedicated to providing these services: NGOs, credit unions, cooperatives, private commercial banks and non-bank financial institutions (some that have transformed from NGOs into regulated institutions) and parts of state-owned banks, for example.
IFC and Microfinance in Africa: Building Strong Commercial Institutions
The International Finance Corporation (IFC)-the private sector arm of the World Bank Group-has $4 billion invested in various kinds of financial institutions in 88 countries: including banks, leasing companies, credit rating agencies, and pension funds. IFC also has $256 million invested in 56 microfinance institutions in 38 countries, reaching more than 1.3 million clients. Institutions in Southern Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America currently comprise the lion's share of this portfolio, but Africa is a growing emphasis as well.

Increasing Microfinance’s Reach with Integrated Services
The destitute—individuals at the very bottom of the socioeconomic scale—are still outside the current scope of most microfinance institutions.
Creating Effective Capacity Building Relationships
MicroStart's use of TSPs is an experiment in creating a new framework for capacity building. The original design sprang from the recognition that the standard CTA model in use throughout UNDP projects was not the best way to support the development of microfinance institutions.

Is MicroStart a Successful Microfinance Strategy for UNDP?
When MicroStart began, its designers were attempting to develop a program that would fit well with UNDP's strengths and weaknesses. They decided to focus on new institutions, recognizing UNDP's presence in many countries where microfinance was still new, as well as the limits on UNDP's ability to provide grants. In order to compensate for the lack of experience of country office staff, they developed a project blueprint that they hoped would prevent some of the most likely errors UNDP offices with little microfinance background might make.
Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria Approves $27.2m Loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) for Rural Microfinance
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) of Nigeria, presided over by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, approved a USD 27.2 million loan from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), as reported by AllAfrica.com. The loan, along with a USD 400,000 grant from IFAD, will constitute the core financing of IFAD’s Rural Finance Institution-Building Programme (RFIBP), a seven-year plan to strengthen rural microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Nigeria as well as establish increased linkages between MFIs and mainstream financial institutions.

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