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

Tuesday, September 11, 2018

FINCA DRC, FINCA Impact Finance’s microfinance subsidiary in the Democratic Republic of Congo, announced it has entered into a USD 8.5 million long-term subordinated loan facility with KfW, the German state-owned development bank. The facility has a loan tenor of six years and will enable FINCA to advance its digital transformation and broaden its offering of innovative financial products and services.

FINCA DRC is the largest microfinance institution in the DRC, serving more than 340,000 customers through a network of 21 branches and more than 1,100 FINCA eXpress agents. FINCA DRC focuses on providing innovative digital financial services to micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which account for most firms in the DRC. In 2017, FINCA DRC launched FINCA Mobile to enable customers to manage their bank accounts, make payments and transfer funds directly from their personal mobile device. The service currently has more than 25,000 users and has processed nearly 150,000 financial transactions.

According to FINCA DRC CEO Mamie Kalonda: “The collaboration and shared objectives between FINCA and KfW will support our efforts to digitize our business, support our capital structure and grow our portfolio. FINCA’s customers will benefit from improved access to an array of products and services that will translate to increased productivity, competitiveness and employment generation.”

According to Katharina Collin and Patrick Schreiber, senior project managers for KfW: “We share FINCA’s values and strongly believe in the virtue of financial services to alleviate poverty, create jobs and improve people’s standard of living.”

KfW is a key minority shareholder in the FINCA Impact Finance network. Both institutions are dedicated to achieving positive social impacts while employing commercial principles that result in sustainable financial returns. The USD 8.5 million facility marks a new milestone in the partnership.

FINCA Impact Finance is furthering its strategy of diversifying its sources of funding to pursue digital transformation and promote financial inclusion through mobilizing deposits and local currency debt funding. In the past year, it has attracted worldwide attention and interest from the investment community after issuing bond offerings in its subsidiaries in Pakistan, Nicaragua and Armenia, allowing greater flexibility to manage foreign exchange and geographic risks.

Photo courtesy of miuenski miuenski.