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Serving SMEs in a Tough Neighborhood: Part two of our Q&A with the CEO and Managing Director of the Middle East Investment Initiative
The Middle East Investment Initiative is a U.S.-based non-profit whose mission is to develop innovative finance tools for SMEs in the Middle East and North Africa, including the Palestinian Territories. Its CEO and Managing Director discuss the challenges it faces - from attitudes toward women to political instability - working in this volatile region.
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- Uncategorized
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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.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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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.
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OPINION: Responsible Investors Needed in Weak Microfinance Markets
Four years have passed since the launch of the Principles for Investors in Inclusive Finance, a compact signed by 40 global investors in the Netherlands. The introduction to these principles states:
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- Uncategorized
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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.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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- lending, microfinance
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Absolute Portfolio Management Invests $8.5m in Microfinance Institutions in Cambodia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru
Absolute Portfolio Management (APM), an arm of Austria-based asset management group C-Quadrat, recently informed MicroCapital that it disbursed credits totaling the approximate equivalent of USD 8.5 million from its two Vision Microfinance funds, the Dual Return Fund-Vision Microfinance and the Dual Return Fund-Vision Microfinance Local Currency, to unspecified microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cambodia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Peru.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- Latin America
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PRESS RELEASE: Asian Development Bank Loans $200m to Yes Bank of India to Fund Women’s Self-Help Groups, Small Farmers
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), a multilateral development finance institution based in the Philippines, has recently approved a loan of up to USD 200 million to Yes Bank Limited, an Indian commercial bank based in Mumbai. The loan will be on-lent to “2.5 million rural, low income women”[1] who are members of self-help groups and “up to 37,000 small-scale farmers”[1] working in rural areas of the country. The loan agreement also includes a provision for USD 1 million to be used for technical assistance for capacity building, including financial literacy training and product development.
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- Uncategorized
- Region
- South Asia
- Tags
- lending, microfinance
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Ujjivan Financial Services Clinches Single Largest Funding Deal in India’s Microfinance Sector
UK's Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), private equity investors CX Partners, Newquest and a unit of Bajaj Group are leading a Rs 600-crore investment in Ujjivan Financial Services, clinching the single largest funding deal in India's microfinance sector, sources directly familiar with the matter said.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- South Asia
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