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Nepal: Productive Sector Makes Big Chunk of Microfinance Loans
December, 31 2016
Nepal - “Microfinance loans were mobilized in the productive sectors like agriculture (51 percent), SMEs (15 percent) and micro-enterprises (18 percent),” the Centre for Microfinance (CMF), Nepal, said in its Nepal Social Performance Country Report 2016 published on Thursday
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Cambodia: One Network to Connect All
December, 29 2016
Cambodia - In Channy, president of Acleda Bank, which boasts about a quarter of the country’s ATMs and nearly 60 percent of all debit cards issued, said the new central shared switch will play a key role in facilitating fast and easy electronic payments, benefitting both customers and financial institutions
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Zimbabwe: RBZ Licences Success Microfinance Bank
December, 28 2016
Zimbabwe - The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has issued Success Microfinance Bank, formerly Collarhedge Finance, with a deposit taking licence, as it presses on with efforts to expand financial services to cover the poor and business start ups
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China: Ant Financial Pushes Rural Finance Service
December, 22 2016
China - Ant Financial said the move accords with a company strategy to boost economic growth in rural areas and the Hangzhou-based internet finance major has set an ambitious goal to lend about one trillion yuan ($143.89 billion) to rural customers in the next three years
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How AfDB Is Helping Transform Agriculture in Africa - Report
December, 21 2016
Africa - The African Development Bank, as one of the leading investors in agriculture in the continent, has been firmly on track on how it has deployed US$5.5 billion in investments in agriculture over five years to 2015, the new Development Effectiveness Review on Agriculture released today shows
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Improving the Policy Environment for Financial Inclusion in the Arab World
December, 20 2016
MENA - Authorities across the region – central banks and ministries of finance – are addressing barriers to financial access, and have begun integrating financial inclusion into ongoing work programs alongside stability and supervisory work. The just-concluded Financial Education in the Arab World Conference took stock of recent progress and outlined areas for moving forward
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Sowing Opportunities and Growing Possibilities in Paraguay
December, 20 2016
Paraguay - The Graduation Approach helps families graduate from extreme poverty in a sustainable and progressive manner. This partnership between Fundación Capital and the government of Paraguay offers a compelling example of how the Graduation program can be integrated into public policy in any region of the world where poverty exists
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E.L. Littlefield, President and CEO, OPIC: The New Faces of Foreign Assistance
December, 20 2016
Global - What do homework on a Kenyan smartphone, a debit card in a refugee’s hand and a solar-powered spotlight atop an Indian elephant have in common? They all represent a trend that began sweeping across the developing world a generation ago, and is now accelerating and transforming the way foreign assistance is delivered
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IFC Launches Online Tool for Expanding Energy Markets in Africa
December, 20 2016
Sub-Saharan Africa - IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, today launched an online tool to develop off-grid energy in Sub Saharan Africa. The "Off-Grid Market Opportunity Tool" draws on a database that will help companies, governments, development agencies, academics and civil society to better assess the potential market for off-grid energy solutions
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WorldRemit Launches Ethiopian and Ugandan Cash Pickup Services
December, 19 2016
Ethiopia and Rwanda - Digital money transfer service WorldRemit has added cash pickup services in Uganda and Ethiopia to its list of offerings. Pickup locations in Uganda include all branches of Pride Microfinance, Diamond Trust Bank and Ugafode Microfinance
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For The Netherlands: Sustainable Development Proposal
December, 18 2016
The Netherlands - Eighteen major financial institutions, including ABN AMRO and ING Groenbank, have signed onto an ambitious program for sustainable development goals’ investment (SDGI). The institutions involved proclaim that they believe it is in their best interest, “as well as that of our clients and investees, to consider the largest societal challenges of our time in our work and investments.
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NGO Opportunity International Sells Urwego Bank in Rwanda
December, 16 2016
Rwanda - HOPE International, which has been a partner of Opportunity International in Rwanda for the last 11 years, is now a 99 percent shareholder in the bank with World Relief continuing to own 1 percent. The transaction has been approved by the National Bank of Rwanda
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E. Dokle and M. Soursourian: New Trends in Global Funding for Financial Inclusion
December, 15 2016
Global - What direction is funding for financial inclusion headed? The results are in from the annual CGAP and MIX Cross-Border Funder Survey. In addition to showing a $3 billion increase in commitments to financial inclusion across the 54 funders surveyed, one of the main takeaways this year is that the world’s major funders are increasingly embedding financial inclusion within projects in different sectors — from education to health — and integrating it throughout their organizations.
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S. Anderson: Next Up for Impact Investing - ‘Solve for Market Demand, Not Investor Preferences’
December, 15 2016
Global - I did not attend the Global Impact Investing Network’s first global forum in 2013 in London. But from what I understand, that inaugural event was typical for the still-nascent field. There were lots of questions about how to proceed, how to develop products that ultimately benefit people and the planet, how to measure their impact and how to make some coin while doing it. There were few answers, but there was a drive to create a community to answer them.
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India: Small Finance Banks May Need up to Rs60,000 Crore by 2020
December, 15 2016
India - Small finance banks (SFBs) could require up to Rs60,000 crore of non-equity funding by 2019-20 assuming 25% growth in both steady state loans and off-balance sheet loans, according to an India Ratings and Research report released on Wednesday.
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TriLinc Global Impact Fund Makes Impact Investments in Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia
December, 14 2016
Global - TriLinc Global Impact Fund announced today that it has approved an additional $36.8 million in term loan and trade finance facilities to companies operating in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia, bringing total financing commitments as of November 30, 2016 to $243.6 million for business expansion and socioeconomic development through its holdings in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
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MyBucks - FinTech Revolution Goes Much Further Than Simply Digitalising Banking
December, 14 2016
Global - While many of us define ‘FinTech’ as utilising technology to digitalise banking processes, Dave van Niekerk - CEO of Frankfurt- listed FinTech, MyBucks - believes that both businesses and consumers do not fully recognise the big picture in terms of how technology will radically transform the world we live in
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India: 19.71 - Number of ATMs per 100,000 Adults
December, 13 2016
India - This was the number of ATMs per 100,000 adults in India in 2015, as per the Financial Access Survey conducted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This number stood at 8.85 at the end of 2011 and at 17.80 at the end of 2014.
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R. Gebelhoff: Microcredit Isn’t Dead
December, 12 2016
Global - Timothy Ogden, managing director of the Financial Access Initiative at New York University, makes this point clear in a compelling and nuanced paper published this month that reviews a group of impact studies on microcredit released in the spring of 2015. For Ogden, the lesson of the past few decades in microlending is that we’ve become swept up in a fantasy about what it could accomplish
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Sri Lanka: Thai Finance Company Acquires 29.99% of Commercial Credit
December, 11 2016
Sri Lanka - Group Lease Public Company Limited (GLPCL), a digital finance company listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), acquired a 29.99% stake of Commercial Credit and Finance Plc (CCF) for USD 70 million at the Colombo Bourse last week. The transaction valued at over Rs. 10.56 billion is one of the highest recorded at the CSE, a company official said.
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Finnfund to Invest in Cambodian-based Microfinance Institution
December, 09 2016
Cambodia - The loan provided by Finnfund is worth USD 15 million. It is a part of combined loans of a total of USD 55 million, arranged by the German development finance institution DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH. This support of international investors demonstrates a strong confidence in Cambodia’s micro-finance sector and outlook for the country’s sustained economic recovery
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Mobile Money Access Lifted 2% of Kenyan Households Out of Poverty, Finds New Study
December, 08 2016
Kenya - The researchers tracked the economic progress of thousands of households and estimate that the expansion of M-PESA lifted 194,000 households, or two percent of households in the country, above the poverty line, and that these effects were partly driven by women's access to the new way of sending and receiving money
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Vietnam: VPBank Gets Microfinance Loans
December, 07 2016
Vietnam - The finance is intended to stimulate microfinance in Vietnam, where debt finance can be hard to come by for small businesses, particularly through mainstream banking channels.
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Indonesia: Farmers to Enjoy Micro Loan Boon Next Year
December, 07 2016
Indonesia - On Tuesday, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo called on his Cabinet to design a micro-credit program specifically designed for the agriculture sector to increase the amount of financing farmers could receive. He acknowledged that the current micro-credit program was too broad
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US Investment Firm Buys $6m Equity in Kenyan Bank
December, 07 2016
Kenya - Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) focused lender in Kenya Jamii Bora Bank Limited has received $6 million equity investment from Chicago-based private equity fund Equator Capital Partners LLC
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EBRD Continues to Support Albania's Agribusiness Program
December, 07 2016
Albania - The newly established Albania Agribusiness Support Facility is gathering momentum with the country’s largest microfinance institution Fondi BESA joining the framework, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said on Dec. 6
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The Impressive Impact of Village Banking in Paraguay
December, 02 2016
Paraguay - Of the country’s 16 banks and 12 financial institutions that are regulated by the Superintendent of Banks, only one—plus one nonprofit organization—are directly working on rural microfinance programs for poor areas of the country. And they are producing some impressive results with a microcredit approach called village banking
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Islamic Banks Slowly Embrace Green Finance - Survey
December, 01 2016
Global - Islamic banks are gradually embracing socially responsible finance, from renewable energy to microfinance efforts, helping unlock new funding sources for environmentally-friendly projects, an industry survey shows
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