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The OPIC Blog
OPIC monitoring trip to Kenya: Big plans becoming realityFebruary 19, 2013An interdepartmental OPIC team traveled to Kenya in 2012 to monitor the performance of three financial institutions whose microfinance lending is supported by the agency: Musoni, the Kenya Women’s Finance Trust DTM Ltd (KWFT), and Equity Bank. Over the course of three days, members of OPIC’s Office of Investment Policy, Portfolio Management Department, Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Finance Department, and 
Featured photo: Supporting small businesses in AfricaFebruary 08, 2013In Nairobi, Kenya, Equity Bank CEO Dr. James Mwangi (center) introduces OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield to Equity Bank agent Maureen Wambugu (right). One of the bank’s community branches is surrounded by several local businesses, including a second hand shoe trader, whose owner used an Equity Bank micro loan to expand his business. OPIC is providing $8.45 million in Growing Micro Entrepreneurs in JordanFebruary 07, 2013Jordanian micro entrepreneurs and small businesses – vital engines of the country’s economy but too often lacking access to long-term capital – received a significant boost in the form of a $2 million loan from OPIC through its partnership with Citibank N.A. Jordan. The loan will support the growth of the Microfinance portfolio of Tamweelcom, the leading microfinance institution in Meeting the global unemployment challengeJanuary 31, 2013A report earlier this month from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) offered some staggering measures of worldwide unemployment. IFC said there are currently 200 million people unemployed around the world – a number roughly equivalent to the population of Brazil — and that the developing world will need to create some 600 million new jobs by the year 2020, just 
OPIC and the global microfinance industryNovember 19, 2012One of the core ways that OPIC carries out its mission to help channel private capital to address the world’s toughest development challenges is by working with microfinance institutions. In this guest post on the CGAP Microfinance Blog, Richard Greenberg and Loren Rodwin, Managing Directors, Micro and SME Finance at OPIC, outline some of the key ways OPIC is working It’s as simple as a stoveAugust 30, 2012How one appliance can saves lives, empower women, and reduce pollution in the developing world. By Mimi Alemayehou Nearly every mother’s daily routine includes making meals for her children no matter where on this planet she happens to live. In the U.S., we have a range of easy, efficient appliances to choose from when preparing a meal – stovetop, oven, 
Kifaru Youth GroupAugust 03, 2012Members of the Kifaru Youth Group, a microfinance loan group based in the Nairobi suburb of Kawangware, meets in June to update their finances. The group is supported with microloans from Equity Bank’s Kawangware branch, which opened in 2007 and has since seen its customer base grow from 5000 members to 80,000. “Kawangware is a slum that is becoming a 
Making education a community effortJuly 26, 2012Earlier this year, we featured some photos from our Netketabi project in the West Bank, which is supporting a program to sell laptop computers stocked with books and other educational materials, to families with school-age children. We recently checked in the the project sponsors who report that 7,500 computers have been purchased through the program to date. Students are using the 
Featured photo: Blessings hair salon in Kawangware, NairobiJuly 13, 2012Jane Akoth, owner of Blessings Hair Salon in the Nairobi suburb of Kawangware, used a microloan from Musoni – a Kenyan microfinance institution that enables clients to manage their loans via mobile phones – to buy new dryers and other machines that have helped her business grow after theft almost ruined her a few years ago. Musoni’s technology enables Jane Extending the reach of microfinanceJune 11, 2012OPIC’s 2011 annual report takes a look back at the agency’s first 40 years and highlights some lending programs from the 1970s that delivered loans – sometimes in amounts less than $1,000 – to individuals and small businesses in developing countries. Decades before microfinance became widely recognized as an effective tool for supplying small loans to individuals and small businesses, OPIC was |
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