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World Bank Boosts Financial Inclusion in Cameroon
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has recently announced an advisory services agreement with Mircrofinance Institute Advans Cameroun geared at expediting the rate of financial inclusion in Cameroon by expanding the range and reach of services available to underserved urban and rural populations.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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NexThought Monday – Why Exiting Our MFI was the Best Way to Ramp Up Impact
In 2009 Sammie Rayner co-founded a microfinance nonprofit called Lumana, which was designed to provide loans and financial services in rural Ghana. Four years later Lumana’s MFI operations were spun off in a deal with a Ghanian NGO. In discussing their decision to exit, she cautions nonprofits against getting too attached to the ongoing survival of their mission.
- Categories
- Agriculture
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Why More Nigerian Microfinance Banks May Collapse
The Managing Director of Asha Microfinance Bank, in Nigeria’s western city of Lagos, Mr Aminul Bhuiya, on Thursday raised fears about the possible collapse of more microfinance banks in the country saying this was due to high cost of operation.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
- Tags
- microfinance
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Viewpoint: Entrepreneurial Dream mEntrepreneurial Dream Made Easy in Pakistan
When 40-year-old Salma Bai wanted to set up her own tea shop in Faisalabad, her main worry was obtaining the capital that was required to start an entrepreneurial venture.
- Categories
- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- microfinance
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How to Get 30 Fintech CEOs to Open Up About Financial Inclusion: Lessons from Accion’s inaugural CEO Forum
Who exactly are financial inclusion entrepreneurs, and what do they do on a day-to-day basis? The leaders at Accion’s recent CEO Forum represented diverse enterprises ranging in size from three employees to 200. Through discussions around regulation, talent, growth, financing and more, the event showed a lot about what drives – and what worries – these entrepreneurs and their businesses.
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- Uncategorized
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Twitter Top Ten – 1-25-15
It was an eventful week in global development - it almost always is. But this week featured a number of particularly important developments, ranging from Bill and Melinda Gates’ trend-shaping annual letter, to some significant new research on microcredit’s impact on poverty. These developments are featured - along with cute rats and an inspiring student - in our weekly top 10 list.
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- Health Care, Impact Assessment
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Reaching the Hardest-to-Reach: Financial Services for Overlooked Populations
The growth of microfinance solutions to address pressing development challenges has brought many of the world's formerly "unbanked" into formal financial systems. However, one group continually remains outside the system -- the poorest of the poor. Even some microfinance programs and deliberately inclusive financial policies remain unaffordable for segments of the population. Across the Global South, a number of initiatives have emerged with the notion that, although access to financial services has expanded in recent years, the remaining need demands innovative actions. We take a look at examples in Lagos, Bogotá, Cairo, and Bangalore.
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- Uncategorized
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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
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