OPIC, Calvert Foundation Finalize Support to PAMIGA Finance, Spreading Renewable Resources Access in Rural Africa
May 13, 2015
(OPIC)
OPIC-backed microfinance facility to issue
nearly 100,000 loans and impact the lives of
almost 600,000 Africans
Targeted lending will spread access to
renewable, off-grid solar energy and
micro-irrigation systems for populations
previously underserved
WASHINGTON – The Overseas Private
Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S.
Government’s development finance institution,
and the Calvert
Foundation today signed financing
agreements to expand the lending operations of
Pamiga Finance S.A. (PFSA), an impact
investment company of the Participatory
Microfinance Group for Africa (PAMIGA),
which for over a decade has been supporting
access to finance for poor individuals,
households, small farms and businesses in rural
sub-Saharan Africa through its network of
microfinance institutions.
OPIC’s $4.75 million senior debt joins $1.5
million from the Calvert Foundation which will
help form a new $12 million PFSA investment
facility that is projected to issue nearly
100,000 microloans over seven years in Benin,
Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Kenya, Madagascar,
Senegal, Tanzania, and Togo.
“Financing access to solar energy for the poor
in rural Africa has a huge social impact: more
kids can study at night and in safer
conditions; people can charge their mobile
phones to trade, send money, and communicate;
public premises such as markets, dispensaries,
and schools get light and refrigeration. Small
entrepreneurs no longer depend upon rising oil
prices to use their machinery. Financing access
to irrigation water enables the sub-Saharan
farmers to no longer depend upon the rain
season and climate hazards. They can grow all
year round and improve their livelihood and
food security whilst monitoring their footprint
on the environment,” said PFSA Chief Investment
Officer Mathieu Merceret.
“PAMIGA is a partner whose work is proven and
whose lending network is expansive. OPIC’s
targeted support to PAMIGA will have an
outsized effect in empowering nearly 100,000
small businesses and farms across eight African
countries with the irrigation and renewable
energy needed to make their operations
sustainable,” said Elizabeth Littlefield,
OPIC’s President and CEO. “This investment is
also a terrific example of OPIC’s ability to
advance some of the most impactful private
sector projects in the world. As the first
project to emerge from OPIC’s Portfolio for
Impact pilot program, PAMIGA is proof that a
small group of focused visionaries can make a
big difference with the right support.”
OPIC’s financing represents two important
milestones for the Agency. PFSA initially
received a small amount of early-stage capital
from the African Clean Energy Finance (ACEF)
initiative, with U.S. State Department funding
administered by OPIC. Proving the catalytic
model of this program, PFSA is the first
ACEF-supported project to subsequently receive
OPIC project financing. This program has become
an essential part of President Obama’s Power
Africa Initiative.
OPIC’s loan to PFSA is also the first to be
financed through the Portfolio for Impact, an
OPIC pilot program designed to support
highly-developmental impact investment projects
that, due to size and structure, would
otherwise face difficulty in obtaining
financing.
Further financial support for the establishment
of the PFSA lending facility came from the
Swiss Agency for Development & Cooperation
and the European Investment Bank.
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