Agora Microfinance Zambia Borrows $324 Thousand from Grameen Credit Agricole Foundation
Agora Microfinance Zambia (AMZ) recently borrowed the local-currency equivalent of $324,000 from the Luxembourg-based Grameen Credit Agricole (GCA) Foundation. The loan has a term of three years. During 2018, the microfinance institution (MFI) began offering money-transfer and insurance services in addition to loans. It reported eight branches, return on equity of 15 percent and a 30-day portfolio-at-risk ratio of 1.3 percent as of December 2018. As of 2019, it serves 37,000 active borrowers of whom 58 percent are women and 85 percent live in rural areas.
Agora Microfinance, which has offices in the Netherlands and the UK, operates MFIs in Cambodia, India and Zambia. These MFIs service 1.2 million deposit accounts, 440,000 borrowers and 340,000 microinsurance clients.