-
Brazilian Development Bank Loans $100m to Banco do Nordeste do Brasil to Expand Microcredit
Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), the Brazilian government’s development bank, reportedly has announced that it will loan USD 100 million to Banco do Nordeste do Brasil (BNB), a public bank operating in Brazil’s Northeastern Region. The investment will be made from the microcredit program of BNDES, and BNB will commit an additional BRL 42.8 million (USD 16.6 million) to the effort. The proceeds will be used to fund individual entrepreneurs as well as micro- and small enterprises (MSEs). The interest rate of the wholesale loan will be set according to the country’s Long-term Interest Rate (known as TJLP in portuguese), which currently stands at 5.5 percent, plus 1.1 percent [1].
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
- Tags
- lending
-
Banks Are Now Handing Out Loans to People They’d Normally Shun
Before Jeff Stewart could credibly advance the notion that your Facebook friend network could—or even should—help you get a loan, he had to prove the system worked and was reliable. It took a long time. I first met him in 2012, a year after he’d launched Lenddo, pitching it as a new way for people just entering the middle class to qualify for and receive loans. His startup planned to use Facebook data to assess credit risk, and to make loans to well-qualified candidates, starting in the Philippines.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Grameen Crédit Agricole Microfinance Loans $1.2m to Kenyan Juhudi Kilimo, Uganda Microcredit Foundation (UMF), Uganda’s Encot
The Grameen Crédit Agricole Microfinance Foundation (GCAMF), a Luxembourg-based provider of financial services to microfinance institutions (MFIs) and other social businesses, recently informed MicroCapital that it has issued the following three loans: (1) EUR 482,000 (USD 555,000) over a two-year period to to Juhudi Kilimo, a for-profit provider of microloans and microinsurance in Kenya; (2) EUR 293,000 (USD 339,000) over a three-year period to Uganda Microcredit Foundation (UMF), a microfinance institution offering financial services to “economically active” Ugandans; and (3) EUR 257,000 (USD 297,000) over a three-year period to Encont, a provider of microloans to rural enterprises in Uganda [1].
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
-
Accion Microfinance Bank Attains National MFB Status in Nigeria, Gives Out N32bn Loans
Accion Microfinance Bank Limited has upgraded to the category of a national microfinance bank (MFB). By this development, the bank said, it has surpassed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) requirements for a national MFB.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
-
Peace Through Finance?: How the Middle East Investment Initiative uses financial tools to help a troubled region
It often seems like a unique set of religious and tribal conflicts are responsible for the Middle East’s problems. But they’re also driven in part by a more universal concern: a weak economy. That’s why the Middle East Investment Initiative is delivering finance and technical assistance that stimulate sustainable economic growth in the region. We discuss this approach with the organization’s CEO and Managing Director in part 1 of this Q&A.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
-
Zambian MFIs Complain of Negative Impact of Bank of Zambia Interest Rates Limits
The decision by Bank of Zambia (BoZ) to limit interest rates that licenced non-banking financial institutions can charge customers had a negative effect on micro-finance institutions (MFIs) performance last year.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
-
Asian Development Bank Commits to $1.5b in Loans for Indonesia’s Infrastructure Development
The Asian Development Bank pledged its support for Indonesia’s development plan and is committed to disburse at least $1.5 billion in loans to the country to help fund various infrastructure projects, the multilateral lender’s president said on Tuesday.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Asia Pacific
-
Credit for the People, by the People: Three pathways to smarter financial inclusion
With the digitization of finance, lenders now have an unforgiving memory of poor people´s formal debt repayments, while knowing little else of any real significance about them. According to Ignacio Mas and David Porteous, this can become the basis for financial exclusion, denying even responsible borrowers access to credit. They propose some alternative pathways to financial inclusion in a new paper.
- Categories
- Uncategorized