Foundation invests in ID Ghana following SAM

By MicroCapital

© Didier Gentilhomme

The majority of the Foundation's 76 partners are located in sub-Saharan Africa and "SAM is the best place to meet existing and potential partners." […] It also provides an incredible opportunity to bring together the Foundation's partners.

Philippe Guichandut, Director of Inclusive Finance Development at the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation, attended all three SAMs. The majority of the foundation's 76 partners are located in sub-Saharan Africa, and Philippe Guichandut noted that "SAM is the best place to meet our current and potential partners." He added, "Around SAM, we always take the opportunity to bring our partners together, which is the best way to exchange experiences among our partners and give them the opportunity to attend training sessions organized by us or SAM."

Leading and attending workshops at SAM has been essential for Philippe Guichandut's team to "share our own experience and promote topics that interest us, particularly in the areas of agro-microinsurance and agricultural finance." For example, at SAM in Ethiopia in 2017, the Foundation organized a field visit to introduce 11 MFIs to the R4 Rural Resilience initiative, an agribusiness microinsurance project of the World Food Programme and Oxfam America. Participants visited Africa Insurance, Nyala Insurance, the microbank DECIS, and two local NGOs, ORDA and REST.

Philippe Guichandut added that "the SAM Investor Fair is also a great way to meet new potential partners and better understand the different types of MFIs that might be interested in working with us." For example, his team met representatives from ID Ghana for the first time at the SAM Fair. This relationship has flourished, and the Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation now finances ID Ghana through the African Facility, a partnership established between the Foundation and the French Development Agency.

ADA, a Luxembourg-based NGO, co-organizes the SAM every two years with the support of the Luxembourg Ministry of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Action. The members of the SAM Steering Committee are: ADA, the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Network of African Microfinance Institutions, the African Agricultural and Rural Credit Association, and the Federation of APSFDs of the West African Economic and Monetary Union. For more information on the SAM, click here.

SAM 2019 is part of a series of events that showcase the value of SAM (African Microfinance Week), a major conference dedicated to financial inclusion in Africa. The first three SAMs took place in Arusha, Tanzania, in 2013; Dakar, Senegal, in 2015; and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 2017. The next SAM will take place at the end of October 2019 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso!

SAM aims to provide a unified platform to address microfinance issues in Africa by bringing together investors, MFIs, researchers, banks, networks, innovators, governments, and other stakeholders. SAM 2017 welcomed 700 participants from 58 countries (mostly African), including representatives from 200 MFIs; 25 exhibitors at the Innovation Fair; and 26 investors, who made 170 contacts with MFIs at the Investor Fair. The Week also included sessions presented by 60 speakers and 20 training courses.