Another month has passed, another update is ready for you: here is the April Provider Update.
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This month we have some big news on Micro Africa. As we reported in the last update, Micro Africa Ltd has been acquired 100 % by Letshego Holdings Ltd, a financial services company from Botswana. In a board meeting last week, it was decided that Letshego will handle all of Micro Africa’s funding needs going forward. Consequently Micro Africa Ltd will exit as a provider on MYC4, meaning that no new loans will be uploaded for bidding. All outstanding loans will be repaying as planned.
For MYC4 it is naturally sad to say goodbye to one of the oldest and largest providers on the platform; at the same time, it is a great satisfaction to have witnessed and supported Micro Africa’s growth over the years, from being a small MFI with 4,200 borrowers to its current position as the largest credit only MFI in Kenya with more than 45,000 clients.
We will be back next week with more information on the exit, including a letter from Micro Africa.
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Fanikiwa Microfinance Company Ltd
Fanikiwa Microfinance Company Ltd from Tanzania has now been a provider on the MYC4 platform for 2 months. The partnership with Fanikiwa has been impeccable so far, and more than €100,000 has already been disbursed to 64 individuals and groups. On the repayment side, investors have received around €3,000 without delays. The maximum outstanding loan balance (OLB) for the pilot has almost been reached, however, which is why Fanikiwa has had to slow down on the number of open loans. The volume is expected to increase following the pilot evaluation which is due in 1-2 months’ time.
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In April, we finally saw the return of SISDO to the platform with around 20 new loans opened for bidding. SISDO had been paused from uploading loans most of this year; first due to its pending pilot evaluation, and subsequently due to some operational challenges that led to performance issues. Now that SISDO is back, we expect to see a good deal of new loans in the coming months seeing as SISDO has the size and capacity to manage a larger loan portfolio on MYC4 than its current €140,000. It is consequently expected that SISDO will more or less double its MYC4 portfolio this quarter.
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The two batches of repayments, a total of €5,250, that had been pending transfer since February, were returned to investors in the month of April. This meant that three PRC loans became fully repaid, namely Bokass Susu Enterprise, Koranch Ventures, and ChrisBud Enterprise. A number of new repayments, totalling approximately €7,500, were registered on the MYC4 platform and they are now in the process of being transferred and returned to investors as well. There is not a lot to report on the coverage of the defaulted loans, unfortunately, except that it is expected of PRC that the first recoveries should be reflected on the MYC4 platform soon.
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The partnership with Growth Africa was terminated in 2011, and Micro Africa Ltd has since then been responsible for the Growth Africa portfolio. The final 9 active loans were defaulted in the last week of April which means that Growth Africa no longer has an outstanding balance on MYC4. These loans had been more than 90 % repaid by the borrowers, but it was necessary to default them to avoid further interest accumulation. Micro Africa is committed to continue handling the Growth Africa portfolio, and will be meeting with MYC4 Staff in May to review the progress of the collection efforts on the defaulted portfolio.
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Those were all the news we had to share this month. If you want particular providers to be included in the monthly updates, let me know. You are also very welcome to follow me on twitter for more regular operational information, news, and interaction: twitter.com/githakurdahl









































