Browsing: microfinance

Parliament Uganda

Uganda’s microfinance unit MSC in the soup over missing $5.8M

Banking
  • Uganda Auditor-General says out of $27.7 million meant for SACCOs under the Emyooga programme only $21.8 million was disbursed.
  • Lawmakers say failure of Microfinance Support Centre staff to follow due diligence in loan disbursement was indicative of incompetence.
  • Parliament tasks MSC officials to detail the efforts put in place to ensure that the intended beneficiaries receive the funding.

A report by the Auditor-General has revealed that Uganda’s Microfinance Support Centre (MSC) failed to absorb a total of $5.87 million (USh21.2 billion) of the Emyooga grant during the 2021/22 financial year.

In his report to Parliament, the Auditor-General observed that out of $27.7 million meant for SACCOs under the Emyooga programme, only $21.8 million was disbursed.

In a meeting on July 25, with officials from the Microfinance Support Centre (MSC), legislators on the Public Accounts Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises (COSASE) queried the way the funds were used.…

Kenya: Branch acquires 85% stake in Century Microfinance Bank

Kenya

This comes after the National Treasury exempted the digital lender from a law limiting individual shareholding in microfinance to 25 per cent.

In a gazette notice signed by the Cabinet Secretary National Treasury, Ukur Yatani, the San-Francisco based fintech has been exempted from Section 19 of the Microfinance Act (for 4 years through 2025).

Currently, individuals or single entities are barred from holding more than a 25 per cent stake in a microfinance institution.…

Microfinance: Serving Low-Income Earners and Growing Small Business

Opinion

Of recent times, microfinance has demonstrably become the most coveted solution to building a robust and efficient national economy that is inclusive of the low-income segment in both urban and rural areas.

The historically nascent level of microfinance services in Tanzania has prompted various non-government organization (domestic and foreign) and financial institutions to take up active roles in providing this service. Institutions such as the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA), SEDA, PRIDE and Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) are some of the active players to have taken up this role in the microfinance subsector. Meanwhile, larger financial institutions have also ventured into carrying out microfinance operations. Banks such as NMB and CRDB which was established in 1995 as a hybrid of a commercial and microfinance bank are key examples of this.

The exciting evolution ofmicrofinance can be traced from before 2000.

Before 2000

The microfinance movement, which is a…

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