MicroCapital is a news resource on microfinance and other forms of impact investing.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Invest in Africa Summit; April 16-17, 2024; the Hague, the Netherlands
This annual gathering promotes trade between Africa and Europe, North America and Asia. The agenda will include country-specific meetings and discussions of investment opportunities for the African diaspora. The conference themes include Agribusiness, Climate Financing, Renewable Energy and Technolo...
MICROFINANCE EVENT: ICT4D Conference; March 19-20, 2024; Accra, Ghana
This annual gathering is intended to promote data innovations that “are making a measurable difference millions of lives” through humanitarian relief, development projects and conservation efforts. The event’s themes include digital inclusion, digital health, food security and agriculture, and...
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Lipa Later Acquires Fellow E-commerce, DFS, Merchant Services Platform Sky.Garden of Kenya for $1.6m
Lipa Later, a Kenyan financial technology (fintech) integrating e-commerce, digital financial services and merchant services in four African countries, recently paid KES 250 million (USD 1.6 million) to acquire Sky.Garden, a Kenyan service that was launched in 2017 but had announced it would close d...
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Sankalp Africa Summit 2024; February 28, 2024- February 29, 202412,2023; Nairobi, Kenya
This annual gathering focuses on “sustainable” development in Africa, including as can be promoted via entrepreneurship and impact investing. Attendees will engage on themes such as renewable energy, gender issues, engaging youth, agriculture, health and sanitation. The cost to attend ranges fro...
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Women’s World Banking Offering 5-month Leadership Program for Regulators
The Saïd Business School at the UK’s Oxford University and the US-based NGO Women’s World Banking are conducting a program from April to August 2024 intended to improve financial inclusion by boosting the leadership skills of financial regulators. Senior banking and regulatory officials of all ...
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Global Partnerships, Goodwell, Oikocredit Invest $8.5m in Equity in Good Nature Agro to Boost Profits of Small Farms in Southern Africa
Zambia-based Good Nature Agro recently raised USD 8.5 million in Series B equity from US-based Global Partnerships and two organizations with offices in the Netherlands, Oikocredit International and Goodwell Ventures. Good Nature Agro supports small-scale farmers with: (1) seed selection; (2) financ...
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: L-IFT Studying Fairness of Presumptive Taxation in Ethiopia
Low-income Financial Transformation (L-IFT), a Netherlands-based firm, recently reported on a study it is performing with data being collected over one year from 140 small businesses in Ethiopia. The study addresses the way the Ethiopian government taxes enterprises that bring in less than ETB 500,0...
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP UP: “Women Agents for Financial Inclusion: Exploring the Benefits, Constraints and Potential Solutions,” by Emilio Hernandez et al, Published by CGAP
Based on data collected from projects in India, Ghana and Pakistan that aim to improve financial inclusion for rural women, the authors examine the interplay between gender dynamics and the employment of women as agents supplying in cash-in and cash-out (CICO) services. This includes the impact thes...
SPECIAL REPORT: Partner with Agents for Impact, and We’ll Drive Impact Together!
This article is sponsored by Agents for Impact (AFI). We invite you to learn more about the firm via LinkedIn. Andrij Fetsun, Founder & CEO at AFI: AFI celebrated five years in business in October this year, and my team has attained several impactful goals during this challenging time. This woul...
SPECIAL REPORT: Leveraging Carbon Credits to Insure MSMEs in Climate-vulnerable Nations
What a pleasure it was to interview Diana Chepng’eno (pictured below) at SAM 2023 in Togo last month! She is such a warm and energetic person - and deeply engaged in the critical work of climate adaptation and mitigation across Africa and the Middle East. During SAM 2023, Ms Chepng’eno spoke
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 19th Annual Global Microfinance Forum; March 14-15, 2024; Amsterdam, Netherlands
This forum will bring stakeholders together to discuss topics such as: (1) Climate-smart Financing for Smallholder Farmers; (2) Women’s Economic Empowerment by MFIs ; and (3) Green & Sustainable Finance; Genuine Change from MFIs. The event is hosted by Uniglobal, a firm based in the Czech Republic...
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: AfDB Seeking $1b for African Climate Risk Insurance Facility (ACRIFA) to Boost Microinsurance for Farms, Livestock Against Drought, Floods
The multilateral African Development Bank (AfDB) recently launched a fund called the African Climate Risk Insurance Facility (ACRIFA), aimed at increasing the continent’s resilience to adverse weather events. ACRIFA follows on AfDB’s Africa Disaster Risk Insurance Program, which supported the cr...
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Jeff Flowers to Lead FINCA Impact Finance
The US-based, for-profit microfinance network FINCA Impact Finance recently announced that Jeff Flowers will become its CEO in January 2024. Mr Flowers previously worked with FINCA International, the US-based NGO launched in 1984 as the Foundation for International Community Assistance, for 17 years...
SPECIAL REPORT: Investors, MFIs Continue to Wrestle with Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR)
The Sustainable Finance Disclosures Regulation (SFDR), which the EU passed in 2019, resulted in a “seismic shift” for impact investment funds and their investees. At the closing plenary of European Microfinance Week 2023, Emmanuelle Javoy of Switzerland-based investor Symbiotics explained her fi...
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Gendered Investment Differences Among Smallholder Farmers: Evidence from a Microcredit Programme in Western Kenya,” by Keiji Jindo et al
The authors of this study conducted a client-level analysis to examine differences in the investment behavior of female and male microcredit users in Kenya. The scope included data on 21,000 clients of a microcredit programme led by Agrics Limited, a Kenya-based agricultural firm. The researchers fo...
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: IDB Invest Lending $30m to Atlantic Bank in Support of MSMEs in Belize, with a Focus on Women-owned Firms
IDB Invest, a member of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, recently agreed to issue Atlantic Bank Limited of Belize senior loan funds of up to USD 30 million with the aim of fostering the expansion of Atlantic Bank’s financing for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). T...
MICROFINANCE EVENT: AEMFI 25th Anniversary; November 28 - December 1, 2023; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Themed, “MFIs in a Digital Era: Financial Inclusion for Job Creation and Women Empowerment,” this event offers microfinance institutions multiple opportunities to showcase their products and how they can contribute to reducing poverty. Researchers will also present their findings, and funders an...
SPECIAL REPORT: Leveraging Financial Inclusion to Get Food Security Back on the Increase
Global food security had been increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. People with low incomes were becoming more able to access - both in terms of cost and distance - a range of foods such as grains and fresh produce on a year-round basis.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: RDG Collective Borrows $2m from Oikocredit for Pay-as-you-go Solar Appliances for 12k Low-income Households in Zambia
Dutch impact investor Oikocredit recently channeled USD 2 million to RDG Collective, a provider of renewable energy products to households in Zambia. Through this collaboration, RDG plans to supply 12,000 households with “access to clean energy and a path to ownership of off-grid solar products......
SPECIAL REPORT: Financial Inclusion of Forcibly Displaced Persons (FDPs), Host Communities Results in Competitive PAR Ratios
The Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation recently carried out a pilot project in Uganda engaging financial services providers (FSPs) in serving refugees and their host communities. The goal is to support FSPs in adapting their products to the needs of forcibly displaced persons (FDPs) -
SPECIAL REPORT: Yikri of Burkina Faso Wins $110k European Microfinance Award for Progress Toward Food Security
From the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP): Yikri wins European Microfinance Award 2023 for its commitment to addressing the complex challenges of food security and nutrition in Burkina Faso. This report is part of a sponsored series on European Microfinance Week 2023, which took place from Nov...
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: EBRD Loans $21m to BCMI of Morocco as Part of Women in Business (WiB) Program
The multilateral European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) recently agreed to loan up to MAD 220 million (USD 21.5 million) to the Morocco Bank of Commerce and Industry (BMCI) in support of the Women in Business (WiB) program, through which EBRD serves women-led micro-, small and mediu...
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Whole Planet Foundation Offering Interest-free Wholesale Funding for Microfinance in Latin America, Caribbean
As a part of its goal to reach 300,000 “microentrepreneurs, smallholder farmers, and vulnerable populations,” the US-based Whole Planet Foundation is accepting applications for loans and grants from “socially-focused microfinance institutions, social enterprises, nonprofit organizations and co...
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Consumers International Global Congress; December 6-8, 2023; Nairobi, Kenya
Every four years, this event gathers stakeholders aiming to create a resilient future for the mass market. The agenda covers topics such as: (1) Transforming Consumer Journeys in Mobile Money; (2) The Influence of ChatGPT on Consumer Experiences; (3) Channels of Change Towards Fair Digital Finance;....
SPECIAL REPORT: Small Business Diaries Benefit Entrepreneurs, Microfinance Institutions
The Financial Access Initiative (FAI) at New York University recently completed a study spanning seven countries, collecting data from firms with up to 20 paid employees. Researchers visited hundreds of these companies every few weeks for one year to support them in completing diaries of their finan...
SPECIAL REPORT: The Business Case for Education Finance
Many families in low- and middle-income countries send their kids to low-cost private schools because the government is not meeting the need. However, many of these schools are not registered as businesses and don’t keep good records, so it is hard for them to borrow from banks to improve their
SPECIAL REPORT: Digitizing Microfinance to Meet Customer Needs via an Incremental Approach
At today’s European Microfinance Week panel on transforming microfinance institutions (MFIs) into digital financial services providers, the focus was on meeting customer needs - not just implementing digital products, but attaining measurable success for clients and MFIs. Given that 80 percent of ...
SPECIAL REPORT: Green Action Group Celebrates 10th Anniversary at European Microfinance Week
Today’s opening plenary of European Microfinance Week included a celebration of the accomplishments of the European Microfinance Platform’s (e-MFP’s) Green Inclusive & Climate Smart Finance Action Group. The group has grown to 150 people and still is accepting new members. One of the main outp...
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