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News
05.03.13 | Juliette
Microfinance in West Africa
Main SFD indicators in December 2012.
Central Bank of West African States (CBWAS) has published the main indicators of SFD (which are microfinance institutions) in the WAEMU (West African Economic and Monetary Union)at the end of December 2012.
Among the key indicators, we note that the region has 729 SFD, 4836 service points, 11 658 237 members, more than 100 billion euros in deposits and more than 98 billion euros of credit.
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News
08.16.12 | JOYCE
Aid For Microfinance Associations in Sub-Saharan Africa
The Mastercard Foundation and The SEEP Network
The Mastercard Foundation and The SEEP Network have recently entered a four year partnership to improve microfinance associations in Sub-Saharan Africa. This partnership costs a total of USD 7.6 billion.
The Mastercard Foundation is a private foundation based in Canada that focuses on education and microfinance.
The SEEP Network (Small Enterprise Education and Promotion) is a non-profit organisation, based in the US that acts as a network for practitioners who work in microfinance fields and microentreprise development.
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News
03.14.12 | MicroWorld
Mobile banking : increasing competition in Africa
On the African continent, with the growth in banking services on mobile phones (mobile banking), more and more telephones are acting as bank accounts for all those who don’t have access to banks. Used at first for money transfers between people, new services are now sprouting up more or less everywhere, at the initiative of telecoms operators, banks and specialist businesses. In Kenya, one of these emerging companies, Mobipay has just launched Agrilife for farmers.
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News
01.20.12 | Thibault Lescuyer
Babeo – an overall approach for Malagasy micro-entrepreneurs
Since January 2011, PlaNet Finance has been coordinating a programme codenamed Babeo, aimed at entrepreneurs in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar. Altogether, over three years, 1,500 women receive information and 300 will follow a custom-designed training course. This European-funded project includes microfinance services as well as psychological help support units and instruction on women’s rights. According to the South-African NGO Gender Links, in Madagascar most likely eight women out of ten are victims of violence.
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News
01.12.12 | MicroWorld
Songhaï Centre: agricultural training for African micro-entrepreneurs
In Benin, the Songhaï centre works on economic development by training young people on sustainable agriculture using local resources. This specialist centre, which has been operating as an NGO since 1985, has just received the financial support of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). That organisation will co-finance the creation of several Songhaï centres in this small French-speaking African country.
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News
12.07.11 | MicroWorld
Microcredit faced with rural exodus in Ethiopia
Her name is Aselefech Desalegn and she’s in the headlines of Africa Renewal, a UN publication that deals with development in Africa. After leaving her parents’ village fifteen years ago, this young lady settled in the town of Bishoftu, 45 km from Addis Abeba. She started work as a hotel cook and became a customer of a microfinance institution to set herself up in business and increase her revenue. She was a street vendor of charcoal and eggs, later switching to baking enjera, the national bread, which she now sells to hotels.
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News
11.30.11 | MicroWorld
Impact of land purchase on access to water in Africa is underestimated
In a growing number of African countries, such as Mali and Ethiopia, foreign companies are buying thousands of hectares of land, usually for monoculture for export (flowers, exotic fruit and fuel crops). The Poverty matters blog of the British daily newspaper, The Guardian, underlines the fact that not only are these purchases reducing land surface available for local farmers but they are restricting water resources.
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News
11.04.11 | La Rédaction
Microinsurance supports Kenyan cattle herders faced with drought
In East Africa, for numerous farmers the main “professional risk” is the death of livestock due to drought. Linked to the disappearance of pasture lands and scarcity of water sources, this risk threatens them with job loss, starvation and, ultimately, loss of life.
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News
10.21.11 | La Rédaction
Interest rate transparency: pan-African forum in Nairobi
“Operation truth” on microloan prices: since 2008, the MF Transparency association has been working to make microfinance interest rates transparent. Its action consists essentially of compiling an inventory of interest rates practiced by local Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and promoting transparency with respect to loan applicants. In Nairobi from 5th to 7th October, the NGO co-organised the first pan-African forum on the topic.
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News
10.18.11 | La Rédaction
Microfinance undergoing major changes in the Ivory Coast
In the Ivory Coast, 75 Microfinance Institutions (MFI) had their permit to operate removed. The list was published on 3rd October by the Economy and Finance Ministry. According to the Griot daily newspaper, this decision follows the recommendation to “clean up” the sector, which was made by a working group partnering the African Development Bank, the IMF and the World Bank.
