{"id":109037,"date":"2015-04-16T16:57:54","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T16:57:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=109037"},"modified":"2015-04-16T17:01:42","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T17:01:42","slug":"afd-signs-financing-agreement-with-microfinance-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=109037","title":{"rendered":"AFD signs financing agreement with microfinance companies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40464\" class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40471\" lang=\"EN-GB\">The\u00a0Agence Fran\u00e7aise de D\u00e9veloppement (AFD) and the Ghana Association of Microfinance Companies (GAMC) have signed a grant agreement amounting to \u20ac1.5 million. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40471\" lang=\"EN-GB\">The Microfinance Companies Capacity Improvement Project (MICCIP) will help GAMC to strengthen its own abilities and that of its training centre as well as to provide technical assistance to its members who have demonstrated a certain amount of professionalism and strong signs of sustainability. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40471\" lang=\"EN-GB\">This will eventually improve the quality of the Microfinance Companies\u2019 (MFCs) financial services to the benefit of disadvantaged populations as well as to Micro Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (MSMEs) from the formal and informal sectors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40469\" class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40468\" lang=\"EN-GB\">The role of MSMEs to the economic development and growth of the country has long been established; they however usually have difficulties to access funding in fair conditions. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40468\" lang=\"EN-GB\">Supporting these MFCs would create more avenues for MSMEs which will enjoy more efficient and responsible financial services, possibly leading to an access to credit at a lower cost with faster loan approval times.<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40466\" class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40465\" lang=\"EN-GB\">The project plans to assess the best performing of GAMC\u2019s members and will select some of them who will benefit from an 18-month technical assistance program, building their financial skills and promoting microfinance best practices. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40465\" lang=\"EN-GB\">These MFCs will thus be able to provide good quality financial services to small and micro entrepreneurs that directly contribute to the local economy and the creation of income generating activities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40465\" lang=\"EN-GB\">The project is also expected to increase transparency and confidence within the microfinance sector leading to a more socially responsible and sustainable financial environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40479\" class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40478\" lang=\"EN-GB\">Ghana is one of the main beneficiaries of AFD Group\u2019s commitments in West Africa since 2004. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1429194985464_40478\" lang=\"EN-GB\">On a cumulative basis, total commitments of the Group from 2004 to till date amount to \u20ac 902.5 M, of which \u20ac 805 M are loans, \u20ac 85.5 M are grants (including budget support) and \u20ac 12 M are guarantees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\">&#8211;<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv1323480638MsoNormal\">Source:\u00a0Agence Fran\u00e7aise de D\u00e9veloppement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0Agence Fran\u00e7aise de D\u00e9veloppement (AFD) and the Ghana Association of Microfinance Companies (GAMC) have signed a grant agreement amounting to \u20ac1.5 million. The Microfinance Companies Capacity Improvement Project (MICCIP) will help GAMC to strengthen its own abilities and that of its training centre as well as to provide technical assistance to its members who have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":109044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[4],"class_list":["post-109037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-st-augustines-college"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/109044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}