NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

For-profit equity funds supporting SME development seem to be in the news lately. The GroFin East Africa Fund provides $22M in SME financing, supported by business mentoring programs. From the GroFin web site:

“As in other developing regions, many East African SMEs are unable toenter the market largely because of a lack of business skills, absenceof collateral and high level of perceived risk by financialinstitutions. The GroFin East Africa SME finance facility wasestablished to service these needs by offering financial and businesssupport services to SMEs within the target regions countries of Uganda,Kenya and Tanzania.”I’m curious to see which SME’s GroFin selects to receive funds, and what the return on investment will be 1, 2, or 5 years out. Stay tuned.

(Timbuktu Chronicles has more, as well)