Africa’s Immense Potential. According to The Economist, approximately one quarter of African adults use formal banking and just 3% have credit cards. Other research Opportunity International has gathered states that women, youth, the poor and rural residents are the least likely to have a bank account. To provide financial access where the need is greatest, Opportunity International prioritizes serving these marginalized groups in particular. It is this commitment that has led Opportunity International to build ten financial institutions in nine African countries and to focus our efforts on serving women and clients in remote areas.

The Vital Role of Technology. The Economist highlights the increasingly widespread adoption of banking technologies such as credit cards and cell phone banking in Africa. These services equip banks to affordably serve hard-to-reach communities while also offering benefits like increased convenience and security. For example, Opportunity International’s microfinance institution (MFI) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) utilizes innovative biometric technology. This enables the institution to securely and digitally identify clients through fingerprint recognition software directly linked to our core banking system. Biometric technology also decreases the MFI’s environmental footprint through reducing paper handling. In addition, it empowers our women clients by linking their money to their fingerprints, preventing a male family member from excluding them from the management of household finances.

Banking in Africa: Continent of Dreams also lays out the central challenges facing African banks:

A Diverse Environment. Africa is larger than the combined total land mass of the United States, China, India, Japan and all of Europe. Thus, as The Economist points out, there is substantial variance both between and within countries in terms of economics and financial access. In Opportunity International’s experience, the needs of our institution in the DRC—where roughly 0.5% of the population is formally banked and 75% live on less than a dollar a day—are very different from those in Ghana, where financial inclusion is limited yet nationwide poverty rates fell a staggering 23.2% from 1992 to 2006.

No Single Africa Model. Due to the continent’s diversity, there is no silver bullet solution to rapidly providing financial access throughout Africa. The Economist shares a number of strategies used by international and regional banks to tap into the African market. Opportunity International has also needed to modify our approach by country, recognizing that a successful product requires some adaptation before it can be replicated at another bank. Our strategies must also nimbly adjust to external changes due to the volatile nature of economies, governments and climate in much of Africa.

At quick glance, Africa looks like a banker’s dream. Its massive population, budding economic development and low levels of financial access seem to offer a recipe for substantial bank growth. Yet, as The Economist indicates, the risks within the African market make it a tough nut to crack. At Opportunity International, we don’t know all of the answers to the challenges the region poses, but we believe that we have the right motivation. Without financial access, low-income households are often forced to choose whether to spend limited funds on their small businesses, their children’s educations or their food. We believe that nobody should have to make those decisions, and that drives us to continue developing innovative, client-focused strategies at our ten MFIs across Africa.

1. Investing in Savings Expansion with New Products and Promotions. Savings help protect low-income families against shocks, smooth household consumption, enhance business productivity and empower marginalized women. BOM staff encourage savings account opening by performing entertaining and informative roadshows in busy markets. During 2013, the bank will also launch a savings and awareness campaign to coincide with the rollout of 2-3 new types of savings accounts
2. Introducing Innovative Agricultural Mapping & Profiling Technologies. When working with smallholder farmers, it’s important for Opportunity to determine the exact land area available for cultivation and the general profile of each household to determine the precise level of inputs (fertilizer, agro-chemicals, etc.) and financing needed. During 2013, BOM’s agricultural team will start using new smartphones and GPS devices to profile agricultural clients and map their land.
3. Launching More Low-Cost Financial Access Points. Providing clients with financial access using non-branch outlets is cheaper for the bank and more convenient for clients, because the bank can afford to deploy more outlets overall. This year, BOM will launch three additional ATMs, deploy its seventh mobile van, open an innovative U-shaped container branch and prioritize distribution of new debit cards to clients.

How much do you know about Mozambique? Here are a few key facts about this vibrant and resource-rich African country:

• Mozambique is slightly less than twice the size of California.
• Portuguese is Mozambique’s official language. The country was colonized by Portugal in 1505 and didn’t gain independence until 1975.
• Following independence, Mozambique became a Marxist one-party state allied to the Soviet bloc. After the breakup of the Soviet Union and a long civil war, Mozambique became one of Africa’s first democracies in the 1990’s.
• Mozambique is still recovering from its difficult history. 90% of Mozambique’s population lives on less than $2 per day.
• 78% of Mozambican adults lack access to formal financial services.

An example of an Opportunity POS device used in a shop

The plan for kiosk satellite branches brought new lessons and challenges for OISL, one of Opportunity’s microfinance institutions in Ghana. With cash transactions, they found that the structure of the bank does matter to clients. Clients report feeling more reassured when handing over their hard-earned cash at an actual bank branch, as opposed to a smaller, less permanent-looking kiosk. OISL made an operational decision to try a different approach and they continued to look for new, economically sound ways of reaching deeper into communities. The results are taking OISL down a new path.

OISL has begun developing more local business partnerships to utilize the resources that are already reaching their current and potential clients across the country. At the end of 2011, OISL began enrolling local merchants as “OISL agents” by supplying them with POS devices, so that clients can transact business with OISL while in their shops. Under this model, a client is able to add electronic money to their mobile phones, withdraw cash and make loan repayments right in their local bakery, cell phone accessory shop or grocery store.

A typical cell phone used to make financial transactions, including loan repayments via text message

Today, OISL has 25 POS devices deployed in retail shops in the western, eastern, Brong Ahafo, and Greater Accra regions of Ghana, and is establishing partnerships with more merchants in this upcoming year. OISL’s other service delivery channels include 29 branches, three traveling mobile vans, and two Community Banking Centers, which are premises where clients meet with loan officers. Not only this, but OISL clients can make financial transactions in an unlimited number of locations simply by using their mobile phones. OISL partners with the local mobile phone service provider MTN, which allows clients to keep their money electronically and make various types of transactions. Using their cell phones, clients can pay bills or transfer money to relatives and friends using text messaging. At participating retail shops, the MobileMoney service allows clients to load money onto their phones, withdraw their mobile money as cash, or purchase products and services in that store. In 2011, OISL rolled out MTN’s MobileMoney solution at all of its branches and plans to begin partnering with other mobile phone service providers in this upcoming year.

Cocoa farmer Beatrice Boaten (left) at a mobile banking van in Kumasi, Ghana, with her loan officer Abena Sarpong

These types of partnerships with retail merchants and cell phone service providers are cost-effective and allow OISL the ability to expand to new areas as never before. For Opportunity Ghana, the year 2012 started off well and 2013 looks bright indeed. We look forward to seeing what new innovations the new year has in store.

Dana Lunberry is a program manager based in Opportunity’s US headquarters. She manages and reports on our work in Ghana and eight other countries in which we operate.

With the help of our strategic partners and supporters, we are able to:

• Fund loans and savings services for one million farmers in Africa
• Enable expansion of satellite branches, kiosks, point-of-sale and cell phone banking for our rural clients
• Build out protections for farmer families, including tailored savings programs and crop insurance, as well as establish relationships with input suppliers and crop buyers

Alice, fertilizer vendor

In Rwamagana, Rwanda, Alice Cyanzayire reviews fertilizer needs with local rice farmers.

With her first loan of $136, Alice Cyanzayire expanded her business by purchasing fertilizer in bulk for resale. Local farmers use Opportunity’s electronic payment system to purchase her products, and Alice provides technical expertise on their use. Alice strives to create strong relationships with farmers and work with them throughout the value chain, from input supply to post-harvest handling. A key component of Opportunity’s agricultural finance initiative is to develop alliances with all the partners that farmers need to succeed. We work with local suppliers to provide crop inputs and with distributors to facilitate the best profit margin for our clients. We also coordinate with NGOs and farmers’ groups to provide financial literacy education and training aimed at increasing yield.

Asuman, sugarcane farmer

Asuman Kyendakulya (left) measures his fields with a GPS device and help from Regional Agricultural Supervisor John Peter Emoi (center) and fellow farmer Joseph Mulandya.

For Asuman Kyendakulya of Mayuge, Uganda, Opportunity’s GPS plotting provides precise information about his land, including plot boundaries, altitude and access to water. From this survey, Asuman can accurately gauge seed, fertilizer and labor needs, as well as predict his sugarcane yield. GPS mapping helps farmers plan and manage their farms, increasing efficiency and income. Where farmland is often fragmented, knowing the exact acreage of their tillable land enables growers to utilize the latest agricultural practices for maximum productivity and environmental sustainability.

Learn how you can invest in farmers and Opportunity’s agricultural finance initiatives »

When you start a fundraiser for Opportunity International’s One Woman Holiday Challenge — and help us reach our goal of $450,000 between now and Dec. 31, 2012 — you’ll empower Opportunity’s women clients, funding 6,000 small business loans for women working their way out of poverty around the world. Every $150 given funds an Opportunity loan for a woman entrepreneur. Thanks to a generous anonymous donor, you’ll also double your impact. All gifts will be matched 1 to 1 up to $450,000! To learn more, and to start your fundraiser, go to opportunity.org/woman »

Opportunity clients like rice farmer Eugenie Nyirabagenzi, in Rwamagana, Rwanda, use microloans to grow their businesses and buy more seeds to produce better crop yields to feed their families and their communities.

Here’s one more reason to take action today: we’re offering a free trip. For every $150 donated to your One Woman fundraiser, you’ll be entered in a drawing to win two all-expense-paid spots on a 2013 Opportunity International Insight Trip. See firsthand the impact that microfinance can have on the lives of our women clients. Complete contest rules are available at opportunity.org/woman »

To date, donations through our One Woman fundraisers have empowered 1,198 women entrepreneurs! That is nearly 1,200 women who now have the opportunity to grow a small business; feed, clothe and educate their children; employ their neighbors; and have a greater voice in their community. Studies have shown that when women have economic opportunities, they are three times more likely than men to reinvest in their children and their communities. In families where women have an income, they have a voice in financial decisions, resulting in better nutrition, health and education for children — including girls. Invest in better futures, one woman at a time.

1.5 billion people worldwide live in extreme poverty, and many are women entrepreneurs with a plan to help themselves, their families and their communities. All they need is a small opportunity.

Start your holiday giving off on the right foot by joining the One Woman Holiday Challenge. Launch a One Woman Holiday Challenge fundraiser at opportunity.org/woman »

Eugenie Nyirabagenzi owns a three-acre rice farm in Rwamagana, Rwanda. Until she became an Opportunity client, she couldn’t afford to hire workers during the planting and harvesting seasons, and she had difficulty making enough money to make ends meet. Today, she accesses Opportunity’s agricultural finance products, including loans; financial literacy training and advice from her loan officer, Jean de Dieu Kampayana; a safe and secure savings account; and weather-index crop insurance. With her increased profits, Eugenie is able to hire three of her neighbors and feed her children more nutritious meals. “I feel more secure now and I have increased hope for my life,” she says. She says that she dreams of the day when she will be able to purchase two more acres of land and enroll her children in good schools. 

Eugenie is one woman who is feeding her family and her community. We’re grateful that we have the opportunity to empower millions of clients like Eugenie every day.

If you’d like to invest in better futures, one woman at a time, visit opportunity.org/woman.

From all of us at Opportunity International, we wish you and your loved ones a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Client Adwoa Kwatemaa used an Opportunity loan to put a new, stronger door and windows on her home in Kumasi, Ghana, so that she and her grandchildren will be safer at night.

By 2030, Africa is expected to have the world’s highest urbanization rate, with 50% of the population living in cities by 2030. UN-Habitat statistics show that about 40.3% live in slums with inadequate and overcrowded housing — often without clean water, electricity and sanitation — and people in rural areas also suffer from a serious lack of these services.

In response to Africa’s housing crisis, Opportunity and Habitat for Humanity have formed a partnership. “The collaboration between Opportunity International and Habitat is a natural extension of our financial services work in Africa, and our mission to invest in one to impact many,” said our CEO Vicki Escarra. “Together with Habitat, Opportunity International will fill the gap to provide a more secure future for impoverished families in this incredibly needy region.”

This joint program offers:

• Access to a full package of financial services, including access to loans, money transfers, payments, savings, cash, and insurance, to people unserved by conventional banks
• Provide short-term loans for land purchase, home improvement and incremental home construction
• Provide financial literacy training to include, where appropriate, training on construction quality, efficiency and the benefits of building safely
• Housing support services (including construction technical assistance) to ensure quality and durability of buildings, plus monitoring/supervision and training

For more information about this exciting partnership, visit opportunity.org/habitat »

Globally, nearly 870 million people are undernourished–about 12% of the world’s population.

It’s World Food Day and social media is buzzing with challenging facts and stats about hunger, like the ones in this post. This information is important. There’s no doubt that it’s one of the great injustices that children anywhere go to bed hungry, that women compose a disproportionate amount of malnourished people, and that smallholder farmers make up half of the world’s hungriest people. But there’s also hope. If countries and NGOs step up their efforts, we can still reach the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of hungry people by 2015, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva announced at the opening session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) yesterday.

Hunger kills more people than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

A meeting of the Cocuricyi rice farming cooperative in Rwamagana, Rwanda, with agricultural loan officer Jean de Dieu Kampayana (at right)

The theme of this year’s World Food day is “Agricultural Cooperatives – Key to Feeding the World.” Cooperatives and organizations can be the key to ending world hunger, helping to provide food security, generating employment, and lifting people out of poverty. In his official World Food Day message for the FAO, da Silva says that for NGOs, agricultural cooperatives are “natural allies in the fight against hunger and extreme poverty.” With a decline in national investments in agriculture, millions of small producers struggle to cope with crises in climate, markets, and prices, especially during global food shortages like the one in 2007-2008. Though many countries have renewed their commitments to ending world hunger, concrete support often lags behind these verbal promises.

Half of the world’s hungry people are from smallholder farming communities.

Most of the world’s smallholder farmers are struggling to live and feed their families on less than $2 a day. According to IFAD, many have not been able to respond to increased demand because they lack access to assets and capital, and they face higher transaction costs, which makes it difficult for them to adapt and respond quickly to market changes. Smallholder farmers don’t compete on equitable terms with big commercial growers. Often, they lack access to markets because roads are poor or transportation is too expensive and higher food prices don’t always filter down to them. They often have to shortsell their produce to make ends meet in the growing season.

One out of four children–roughly 146 million–in developing countries is underweight.

In order to increase global food supplies, smallholder farmers need secure access to land and water; rural financial services to pay for seed, tools and fertilizer; roads and transportation to get their products to market; technology to receive and share the latest market information on prices; and greater representation in decision-making processes. Cooperatives help fill the void, enabling farmers to overcome these constraints by providing members with access to a range of assets and services.

Women make up a little over half of the world’s population, but they account for over 60% of the world’s hungry.

It’s through agricultural finance tools that organizations like Opportunity are implementing systems that help vulnerable small-scale farmers have greater food security. In Sub-Saharan Africa, these tools enable them to grow more crops, increase their incomes and feed their families with:

• Loans to buy high-quality seed and fertilizer
• Training in best farming practices
• Insurance to protect their crops from natural disasters
• Access to markets where they can sell their crops at a good price

To feed the Earth’s growing population, food production will have to DOUBLE by 2050.

This is what Opportunity does in its work with smallholder farmers in remote, rural and agricultural communities in five Sub-Saharan African countries. Our Trust Group model is essential for farmers who may lack access to market linkages, and may have never before had access to formal financial services. We’re able to reach them via mobile banking vehicles and e-banking products, as well as through our loan officers and field staff who train them on best farming practices and in financial literacy. In addition, farmers receive support from their fellow Trust Group members and they have a forum in which to discuss their challenges, voice their concerns, and have a role in decision-making processes.

Sixty percent of the 10.9 million children under age five who die in developing countries every year, die from malnutrition and hunger-related diseases.

“It has been said repeatedly that we have the means to eliminate hunger and malnutrition,” da Silva notes. “What is needed is the establishment of an enabling environment that allows small producers to take full advantage of available opportunities. Strong cooperatives and producer organizations are an essential part of that enabling environment.”

That environment is what Opportunity creates for smallholder farmers.

Looking for a new way to help Africa’s smallholder farmers? Buy our t-shirt, made by our partner Made for Good. Your purchase will help a farmer grow more food to feed her hungry family, her community and her country!

Rosemary with her students at the Nadulu Infant Primary School in Kampala

Opportunity is so proud to honor teachers like Rosemary Namande, who educates hundreds of kids at the Nadulu Infant Primary School in Kampala, Uganda, boarding many who are orphans, and taking care of a number with HIV/AIDS. Rosemary explains that “love for the children is down in my heart.” Her love and commitment to her students’ well-being and their education is inspiring, and perfect example of why we’re dedicated to supporting teachers and school administrators with our education finance initiatives, including school proprietor loans and school fee loans to students and their families. Because 130 million children worldwide are not in school, and 70% of them are girls. That’s not a statistic we or anyone else should be able to live with! We’re working to ensure that there are quality schools, in urban as well as in rural and remote neighborhoods, and that parents can afford to send their kids to them, especially the girls.

Take a stand for teachers today. Learn more about our education finance program and share it on Facebook, and say a big thank you to the teachers you know. Where would our kids, and millions of kids around the world, be without them?

Clients Emelia George & Enyoman Hlordzi, smallholder farmers in Ada, Ghana

On Friday, I visited three women farmers–Emelia George, Enyoman Hlordzi and Gladys Donu–in Ada, an area two hours outside of Ghana’s capital Accra. As far as the eye could see were small plots of land financed through Opportunity’s agricultural finance program. In spite of the heat and intense sun, the women greeted us with cheerful smiles and proudly showed us their farms, which featured neatly planted rows of tomatoes, onions and carrots. I marveled at what they could grow in the sandy soil! I thought about the effort it took to dig those thousands of small holes and to place a single seedling in them. Then I learned how Opportunity loans have enabled these farmers to purchase irrigation systems, including an electrical pump and tubes (hoses), so they no longer have to carry buckets of water from the well to water the plants individually. There literally are not enough hours in the day to keep up with this backbreaking task. It was such a beautiful thing to see sprays of water shooting up from the black rubber tubes placed along the rows. And this scene is being repeated in six communities in Ada, where we serve 110 smallholder farmers, 55% of whom are women.

With irrigation, fertilizer, seed and manure purchased with Opportunity loans, Emelia, Enyoman and Gladys have expanded the size of their farms and the variety of crops they grow. They’ve received training which has helped them improve their farming methods. This has ultimately increased their crop production, their income and their ability to support their families. They also can afford to hire neighbors to help them clear more land and harvest their bumper crops.

We went back today with an Opportunity Ghana agricultural loan officer to visit further with these farmers on their land and in their homes, and hear more about our program there. We’re excited to share the farmers’ stories with you in the weeks and months ahead, so stay tuned to the blog, social media and more.