Microcapital Monitor the MICROFINANCE NEWSPAPER
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DECEMBER 2008 | VOLUME.3 ISSUE.12 MicroCapital Monitor THE MICROFINANCE NEWSPAPER MICROCAPITAL BRIEFS | TOP STORIES Second SNS Institutional Fund Raises $171m INSIDE Page SNS Asset Management (SNS) has closed its second institutional microfinance fund with a MicroCapital Briefs 2 commitment equivalent to USD 171 million. Like the first fund, this fund is founded exclusively for institutional investors. Director Theo Brouwers commented, “With the launch Microfinance news of this second microfinance fund we also felt the consequences of the financial crisis…. [T]here are also parties that have postponed their participation until peace on the financial Meet the Boss 10 markets has been restored. Nevertheless, we have...exceeded our target….” SNS, a division Perfect Point Partners of SNS REAAL of the Netherlands, manages assets of USD 28 billion. SNS has appointed US-based Developing World Markets (DWM) as investment manager for the fund. SNS Pioneers in Microfinance 11 holds a 10 percent participation in DWM. December 1. 2008 Early innovators Norwegian Initiative Establishes Two Funds Totaling $100m Market Indicators 12 The Norwegian Microfinance Initiative (NMI), a joint venture among several private Courtesy of the MIX institutions, the Norwegian Investment Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund) and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) has established two investment Upcoming Events 13 funds: NMI Global Fund and NMI Frontier Fund. Continued on Page 2. Industry conferences Ghana to Allow Use of Social Security Accounts as Guarantees Paper Wrap-ups 14 Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Informal Sector Fund, HFC Bank Latest research and reports Ghana Limited and Boafo Microfinance Services Limited have agreed to allow SSNIT members to use their account balances to secure loans from Baofo Microfinance. The Monitor Subscriptions 15 membership of SSNIT’s Informal Sector totals 20,000, but promises have been made to increase membership to two million. Four months after its establishment in 2007, Boafo Support our emerging industry by reported a loan portfolio of USD 1.1 million and 450 borrowers. Boafo was established by subscribing, renewing or upgrading HFC and CHF International, with support from the US Agency for International Development and the United Nations. December 2. 2008 India’s Ujjivan Raises Equity Worth $18m, Offers Exit Ujjivan Financial Services, an Indian microfinance institution, has raised the equivalent of USD 18.7 million, bringing its total paid up capital and reserves to USD 21.5 million. Much BANGLADESH of the capital was invested by existing shareholders such as Unitus Equity Fund (UEF), MFI MARKET SHARE TRENDING 2005 TO 2007 Bellwether Microfinance Fund and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. Five new investors in BY MFI SIZE (NUMBER OF ACTIVE BORROWERS) the private placement include Sequoia Capital, Lok Capital, UEF II, India Financial Inclusion Fund and the Small Industries Development Bank of India. An interesting element of the deal offered investors the liquidity via a buyout at market price by Bellwether Microfinance Fund and UEF. Ujjivan reports 56,000 active borrowers, all women. Before this capitalization, Ujjivan reported to the Microfinance Information Exchange total assets of USD 10.2 million, a debt-equity ratio of 332 percent and a return on equity of -47 percent. November 21. 2008 World Bank Provides $200m for Vietnam Rural Finance The World Bank has pledged to provide USD 200 million to improve Vietnamese farmers’ access to finance. The so called “Vietnam Third Rural Finance Project” will get an additional USD 79.29 million from the Vietnamese government, participating credit institutions and retail borrowers. The project will provide loans for investments in productive assets and working capital needs for enterprises with up to 50 employees. This five-year project follows two previous similar projects, which totaled USD 348 million. MARKET INDICATORS PAGE 8 November 18. 2008 This report available by SUBSCRIPTION ONLY: Support this emerging industry by subscribing and advertising via www.MicroCapital.org Page 1 MICROCAPITAL MONITOR | MICROCAPITAL.ORG DECEMBER 2008 | VOLUME.3 ISSUE.12 MICROCAPITAL BRIEFS MicroFinanza Completes 114 Credit, Social Ratings of MFIs MicroFinanza Rating (MFR), a rating agency that specializes in Microfinance Thailand Optimistic Despite 100% Repayment microfinance, reports having performed eight credit ratings in Ecuador The website Microfinance Thailand recently reported that, “Here in for the Superintendence of Banks and Insurance during the third quarter Thailand, despite a struggling economy, microfinance institutions (MFIs) of 2008. Overall, MFR has carried out 96 credit and performance are not feeling ill effects. In fact, Common Interest Foundation in ratings and 18 social ratings since January 2008. December 10. 2008 Chiang Mai is still seeing a 100 percent repayment rate on its loans to member Village Banks…. Microfinance is resilient to financial crises like Mobile Finance Innovations Made in the Street the current credit crunch in part because of the more intimate Technology monthly PCWorld recently published an article by Ken relationships MFIs have with borrowers….” We might be more likely to Banks pointing out that sometimes the best new technologies “exported” buy this argument were it not from a source that puts stock in statistics as to Africa are in fact invented by users in Africa before being officially dubious as 100 percent repayment rates. December 15. 2008 offered by service providers: “Services such as Call Me - where customers on many African networks can send a fixed number of free Mozambique Government Launches $1m Rural Fund messages per day when they’re out of credit requesting someone to call The Bank of Mozambique has launched the "Access Finance Challenge them - came about as a result of people ‘flashing’ or ‘beeping’ their Fund" (AFCF), which will finance efforts to expand financial services in friends (in other words, calling their phones and hanging up to indicate rural areas, with support equivalent to USD 1 million from German that they wanted to talk).” In another example, “Increasing numbers of development bank KfW. Both microfinance institutions (MFIs) and African users were already carrying out their own form of money commercial banks will be eligible to access the funds, which are intended transfers through their mobiles long before any official service came into to promote the use of international financial reporting standards, to being. (SENTE, from Uganda, is one of the better known indigenous integrate MFIs into the national payments system and to introduce ‘systems.’) What [Kenyan mobile money transfer service] M-PESA has innovative financial products in the countryside. December 15. 2008 done is formalize and scale this kind of activity and bring it fully to market. Its impact has been spectacular, with around 3 million registered IFC Funding Jordanian Credit Bureaus users since launch in March 2007 and about KES 8 billion (USD 106.8 International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank million) changing hands every month.” December 10. 2008 Group, has committed to work with Jordan to establish a legal framework for credit bureaus. IFC will also help raise awareness of the Norwegian Initiative Establishes Two Funds Totaling $100m economic benefits of credit reporting as part of a larger effort that also Continued from Page 1. A total of USD 100 million has been committed by covers corporate governance for banks and SME management training. the owners, with Norfund funding half of this amount. The funds are December 15. 2008 expected to make their initial investments during the first quarter of 2009. NMI Global Fund will invest in more mature microfinance Financial Predicaments in Rural China institutions through other investment funds. The NMI Frontier Fund China Business Feature recently reported on the work of a team backed will invest in new and emerging microfinance institutions via direct by HSBC and Tsinghua University School of Economics and investments as well as through other funds. Specific countries or Management as it explored the trials of accessing financial services in geographic areas of focus were not named. December 9. 2008 China’s rural areas. For a detailed account please visit MicroCapital.org. December 11. 2008 Unitus, Whole Planet to Partner with Jamii Bora Trust of Kenya Unitus and Whole Planet Foundation (WPF), an affiliate of US grocer Cameroon’s Microfinance Industry in Need of Regulation? Whole Foods Market, will support Kenyan microbank Jamii Bora Trust Cameroon’s growing microfinance industry is in need of regulation to in expanding to rural coffee-growing regions. The amount of funding become effective in the fight against poverty, according to an Inter Press was not disclosed. Jamii Bora has 170,000 members and 86 branches. Service report. Key impediments cited included a lack of cooperation WPF has authorized USD 7.9 million in grants to its microfinance between banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs), MFIs operating partners. Whole Foods Market’s 2007 net income was USD 182.7 outside of the law and a lack of effective regulation. One study concludes million. December 9. 2008 microfinance in Cameroon makes up 44 percent of the financial sector and covers 287 localities, as compared to 15 by commercial banks. The Kenya Women Finance Trust Seeks Regulated MFI Status national government is organising training seminars for MFI staff