View the webinar on partner support

[chapeau]You can watch or re-watch this new edition of Les Témoins en Actes webinar on support, the cornerstone of the solidarity investor’s mission.[/chapeau]

The webinar featured Abdou-Rasmané OUEDRAOGO, Managing Director of Union des Baoré Tradition d’Epargne et de Crédit (UBTEC). UBTEC is a microfinance institution that operates mainly in rural areas of northern Burkina Faso, in the Sahelian zone, while maintaining a strong peasant base thanks to the fact that it was founded by Burkina Faso’s main peasant federation.

SIDI’s General Manager, in dialogue with SIDI’s partnership manager, came to talk about the relationship forged with SIDI to support farmers in the Ecological and Social Transition. Support from the ACTES Foundation has made it possible to finance and support the agro-ecological practices of UBTEC members.

 

Webinar: Partner support

[chapeau]To strengthen its support for its partners, SIDI has created the ACTES Foundation under the aegis of the Terre Solidaire Foundation. In this new webinar, Les Témoins en Actes focuses on support, the cornerstone of the solidarity investor’s mission.[/chapeau]

To find out more about the tailor-made support provided by the ACTES Foundation to SIDI’s partners, we invite you to a new ” Témoins en ACTES ” event on Thursday March 31 from 5 to 6.30pm.

This time we welcome Abdou-Rasmané OUEDRAOGO, Managing Director of Union des Baoré Tradition d’Epargne et de Crédit (UBTEC).

UBTEC is a microfinance institution that operates mainly in rural areas of northern Burkina Faso, in the Sahelian zone, while maintaining a strong peasant base thanks to the fact that it was founded by Burkina Faso’s main peasant federation.

The Managing Director of SIDI will give us his account, in dialogue with SIDI’s partnership manager, of the relationship forged with SIDI to support farmers in the Ecological and Social Transition. Support from the ACTES Foundation has made it possible to finance and support the agro-ecological practices of UBTEC members.

1h30 of discussions to better understand the links between SIDI’s investment and support activities, and the challenges it faces in consolidating its support mission with its partners.

→ Register for the webinar here

The first edition of Les Témoins en Actes webinar welcomed Assata DOUMBIA, producer and president of the ECAM cooperative in Côte d’Ivoire. You can read his testimonial and watch the webinar again:

[CP] EIB lends €5 million to FEFISOL II fund

[CP] European Investment Bank lends €5 million to FEFISOL II to finance Africa’s agricultural sector

 

Building on the success of FEFISOL, the first impact fund dedicated to the rural world in Africa, which closed in 2021, its two founders, SIDI and Alterfin, have been actively working on the creation of a new fund: FEFISOL II, created at the end of 2021.

Today, the EIB is announcing its entry into the capital of FEFISOL II for an amount of 5 million euros! This renewed commitment will enable the Fund to pursue and deepen its social mission.

FEFISOL 1 has had a considerable impact over the past decade:

– 86M euros disbursed, of which 93% in Sub-Saharan Africa ;

– 75% of average outstandings in local currency ;

– 92 customers financed in 25 countries;

– 139 technical support projects carried out for 51 customers.

FEFISOL II builds on FEFISOL I’s pioneering support for rural microfinance and the agricultural sector. The challenge posed by the lack of financing for rural areas in Africa, and for farmers in particular, remains crucial.

In Africa, less than 5% of loans disbursed by traditional financial institutions are earmarked for the agricultural sector, and less than 10% of farmers have access to credit. And this despite the fact that around 48% of the population depends on agriculture. Although it makes a major contribution to many African economies, the agricultural sector is still poorly served financially, as it is often perceived as too risky or not profitable enough.

Rural communities face multiple challenges: the remoteness of financing, but also the growing risks induced by climate change, as well as the financial inclusion of women, who represent 60% of the agricultural workforce in Africa without often being able to benefit from the same rights as men.

FEFISOL II is structured to provide financial and technical support for solutions designed locally to meet these challenges. FEFISOL II will be implemented in over 25 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and is expected to support 130 microfinance institutions or agricultural companies and cooperatives sourcing from smallholders and certified fair trade or organic.

Other investors are joining FEFISOL II for a round of financing that will close at the end of March: the first investments will be effective from May!

 

 

ECAM wins the international Grands Prix de la Finance Solidaire!

[chapeau]SIDI partner ECAM, a cocoa producers’ cooperative, wins the International prize at the 12th Grands Prix de la Finance Solidaire organized by FAIR-Finansol and Le Monde newspaper. A highly deserved reward for this exemplary Ivorian cooperative in terms of both its social and environmental impact. [/chapeau]

Assata Doumbia, producer and president of the cooperative: “I’m delighted to receive this award for our cooperative. In Côte d’Ivoire, it’s rare to find cooperatives with good governance. This prize also crowns all the work we’ve put into our governance. Today I’m very happy for the producers and for the whole community!

The Entreprise Coopérative des Agriculteurs de Méagui (ECAM) was created in 2004 on the initiative of 87 cocoa producers, including Assata Doumbia. A very dynamic cooperative, ECAM now has a membership of 2,466 cocoa farmers and, remarkably, 367 women. As cocoa is traditionally a “man’s business”, ECAM encourages planters to hand over part of their plots to their wives, enabling these women to become producer-members of the cooperative and thus securing their situation.

Solidarity finance has played a crucial role in ECAM’s development, with the number of members more than doubling since it first became available. This financing, since 2017 through FEFISOL, the investment fund in which SIDI is a founding shareholder, and then from SIDI since 2020, has first enabled it to limit payment delays to its producers. And, more generally, to guarantee a degree of autonomy vis-à-vis its buyers, whose pre-financing is both uncertain and insufficient in terms of duration and amount. Today, it’s the banks that come to us with their offers,” smiles the President of ECAM, “but we prefer to stay with our partner SIDI because only solidarity finance enables us to have, beyond financing, the support that is essential to us.

With nearly 7,000 tonnes of production per year from an area of over 1,2883 ha, ECAM is now one of Côte d’Ivoire’s best-known cocoa cooperatives. ECAM provides its members with strong added value, stemming directly from its social and environmental vision: to strengthen the financial autonomy of its members and their families while respecting the environment. In cooperation with its members, the cooperative decides how to use the premiums linked to the Fair Trade and UTZ/Rainforest certifications it has acquired: almost half of these premiums are paid back to producers in proportion to the volumes delivered. The remainder is used for social projects providing direct aid to the poorest, or for public services such as building schools or pumps.

The environmental issue, crucial in the cocoa sector, has been central to the cooperative’s approach since 2016: distribution of shade trees to planters as part of an agroecological approach, geolocation of plots to respect protected forest areas. In 2018, it started a program to convert some of its members to organic: 55 are certified organic to date, making it one of the country’s 5 organic cooperatives. Around a hundred growers have also begun conversion.

SIDI wishes ECAM every success in the future and will continue its commitment to the development of cocoa that respects producers and their environment.

Successful 5th African Microfinance Week in Kigali

[chapeau]The 5th edition of African Microfinance Week brought together nearly 600 inclusive finance professionals from 55 countries in Kigali, Rwanda. A tremendous success![/chapeau]

African Microfinance Week (AMW) is the largest conference on inclusive finance in Africa. Organized every two years in a different African country, it features conferences, training and workshops, an innovators’ village, and of course the investor fair in which the SIDI team plays an active part. A networking event dedicated exclusively to investors and African MFIs, the investor fair enables SIDI to forge future partnerships.

The SAM is an essential event for exchanging and sharing expertise on inclusive finance. The theme chosen for this year’s event was resilience: ” You’re not born resilient, you become resilient: strengthening inclusive finance to better overcome crises “. This was the first time the SAM had been held in Rwanda. This choice has enabled us to shine the spotlight on a country that has shown tremendous resilience and a phenomenal ability to adapt.

As always, the SIDI team was on hand. The emotion of being back in the flesh, and seeing the success of our participation, was palpable.

Why so many people? The impact of microfinance has always been the subject of debate. It’s a fact that microfinance is resilient, that it continues to provide concrete solutions and that, thanks to the leverage it generates, it enables individuals to define their own destiny.

At this 5th edition, everyone was able to gauge the vitality of African MFIs. In the face of the health crisis, MFIs ultimately managed to cope with the liquidity problems they faced. This shows the considerable work carried out by MFIs over the past 20 years, making them already resilient. The current crises – whether the health crisis linked to Covid19, the ensuing economic crisis, the issue of access to employment for young people, or the crucial challenge of adapting to climate change – must also be an opportunity to change practices, innovate, and advance the solutions that enable this adaptation. From the investor’s point of view, crises can have the beneficial effect of encouraging us to get closer and more involved together.

SIDI continues to forge ahead, placing solidarity at the heart of the economy and finance. Invest in small MFIs, establish long-term partnerships, share the partners’ vision and risk, so that these partnerships serve to consolidate the structures. Supporting the MAIN network in its capacity building program for its members – over 125 African MFIs! Defend the importance of technical assistance and support in response to the needs expressed by partners, to serve an inclusive economy in a process of ecological and social transition.

Some pictures of the event:

(c)GODONG // (c)SIDI

VAHATRA and ECAM nominated for the Grands Prix de la Finance Solidaire!

[chapeau] Every year, FAIR and the newspaper Le Monde join forces to award the Grands Prix de la finance solidaire. This year, for the 12th edition, two SIDI partners have been nominated in the International Prize category: the ECAM cocoa cooperative in Côte d’Ivoire and Vahatra, a social micro-finance institution in Madagascar. [/chapeau]

In Madagascar, the Vahatra association – Malagasy for roots – was created in 2002 by two associations, one French and the other Malagasy, with the aim of combating extreme poverty in the center of the island. The originality of its intervention lies in the fact that it combines savings, credit, social support and mutual health insurance services.

Vahatra targets people living below the poverty line (less than 2USD/day) and 67% of its customers are women. In addition, 77% of its portfolio is dedicated to agricultural financing. Its integrated approach, combining economic and financial tools with social and health support, makes it a unique partner in a country that suffers from a lack of public support and dramatic inaction in rural areas. The association gives these poor people the opportunity to benefit from advice, training and loans, enabling them to develop an income-generating activity. This economic support is backed up by individualized social follow-up to help families resolve other problems, such as children’s schooling, lack of identity documents, health or family budget management.

Vahatra has benefited from solidarity finance since 2015 through SIDI in the form of guarantees that have enabled it to take on debt with local banks in order to develop its portfolio. This contribution is necessary for an MFI that targets populations considered too risky by other players. In addition, solidarity finance provides Vahatra with support for its future institutional transformation. Although Vahatra will be supporting 17,277 borrowers in 2020, it is not yet self-sufficient and needs to step up its activities to break even. In order to be able to receive capital financing and comply with the requirements of the regulator, it has therefore embarked on a transformation into a limited company. With the separation of microcredit and social activities, the latter should be fully covered by subsidy programs, enabling the microcredit component to boost its profitability. The association will retain a majority shareholding in the SA dedicated to microfinance in order to guarantee its social mission. SIDI is also examining the possibility of acquiring a stake in the future entity, to help ensure the sustainability of its unique and essential service offering in this very poor region of Madagascar.

The Entreprise Coopérative des Agriculteurs de Méagui (ECAM) is located in the southwest of Côte d’Ivoire, in the country’s leading cocoa-producing region. The cooperative was created in 2004 on the initiative of 87 cocoa producers. A very dynamic cooperative, ECAM currently has 2113 cocoa farmers, including 322 women. As cocoa is traditionally a “man’s business”, ECAM encourages planters to hand over part of their plots to their wives, enabling these women to become producer-members of the cooperative.

ECAM brings strong added value to its members as a direct result of its social and environmental mission. The cooperative thus has a five-year development plan drawn up in cooperation with its members, which it uses to determine how to use the premiums linked to the fair trade and UTZ/Rainforest certifications it has acquired. Half of these premiums are paid directly to producers in proportion to volumes delivered, in line with our policy of improving their income. The cooperative also helps them diversify their income, mainly through market gardening and poultry farming. At the same time, part of the premiums is used for social projects: direct aid to the poorest – distribution of food and school kits, for example – and public service projects such as the construction of schools or pumps.

Solidarity finance has played a crucial role in the development of ECAM, which has seen the number of its members double since it gained access to it. This financing, since 2017 through FEFISOL, the investment fund in which SIDI is a founding shareholder, and then from SIDI since 2020, has first enabled it to limit payment delays to its producers. And, more generally, to guarantee a degree of autonomy vis-à-vis its buyers, whose pre-financing is both uncertain and insufficient in terms of duration and amount.

With nearly 6,500 tonnes of production per year from an area of over 1,202 ha, ECAM is now one of Côte d’Ivoire’s most recognized cocoa cooperatives, as much for its operational performance as for its social and environmental impact.

ECAM is a cooperative that supports its producers while respecting the environment. The environmental issue, crucial in the cocoa sector, has been central to its approach since 2016. The cooperative geolocates plots to preserve protected forests, and is developing a nursery project to distribute shade trees to planters, with the aim of limiting evaporation in the dry season and recreating biodiversity in the plots. In 2018, it started a program to convert some of its members to organic: 55 are certified organic to date, making it one of the country’s 5 organic cooperatives. Around a hundred growers have also begun conversion.

Join FAIR and Le Monde in Lyon on November 9 to discover the 2021 winners!

Further information: www.vahatra.mg www.ecam-meagui.com