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Servicing Rural Malawi with Expanded Microfinance Services
Opportunity Malawi is partnering with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to provide access to microfinance services, including agricultural loans, to over 25,000 people living in poverty through 2011. The $350,000 grant from IFAD’s Rural Livelihoods Support Program will help combat hunger and poverty in three rural districts in southern Malawi. In addition, IFAD has Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, agricultural loans, Agriculture, Aleksandr Kalanda, Aleksandr-Alain Kalanda, Cell phone banking, Cell Phones, Community, Ending Poverty, Financial services, IFAD, IFAD rural poverty report, Impact newsletter, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Loans, Malawi, MFI, Microfinance, OIBM, Opportunity International, Opportunity International Bank of Malawi, Opportunity Malawi, Poverty, Rural Outreach, Satellite bank branch, Smallholder farmer, Winter 2011 Impact
Five Million People in Five Years: Bank-Building in Africa
Last Wednesday, Opportunity staff and supporters gathered for the quarterly conference call hosted by the Board of Governors. The topic was “Bank-Building in Africa” and Opportunity’s Banking on Africa campaign, a discussion led by two of our experts in the International Business Development department: Dennis Ripley, SVP of programs, and Simona Haiduc, VP of program management. Young Ambassadors for Opportunity (YAO) Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, ATMs, Bank Building, Banking on Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clients, Country champion team, Democratic Republic of Congo, Donations, DR Congo, Ending Poverty, Financial services, fundraisers, Fundraising, Gates Foundation, Ghana, Guest Post, Insight Trip, Kenya, Kiosk, Loans, Malawi, MasterCard Foundation, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, mobile banking vehicle, mobile phone banking, Mozambique, Online fundraising, Opportunity International, OptINnow, point-of-sale devices, POS devices, Poverty, Rwanda, Satellite bank branch, Savings, Smallholder farmer, South Africa, Tanzania, Technology, The MasterCard Foundation, Uganda, YAO, Young Ambassadors for Opportunity
Stand Up For Africa’s Farmers
When times are tough, it’s important to stay focused on what matters to you. At Opportunity, we remain focused on delivering microfinance services that make a real impact on our clients living in very difficult economic situations. In particular, our agricultural finance programs in Africa enable smallholder farmers to pay their bills throughout the growing Read more…
Tagged Advocacy, Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Banking on Africa, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clients, Ending Poverty, Facebook, Farmer, Financial services, Loans, MFI, Microfinance, ONE, ONE Campaign, Opportunity Blog, Opportunity International, Political advocacy, Poverty, Smallholder farmer, Social Media, Twitter
In the News: Mobile Phone Banking and Opportunity Malawi
“For a farmer, the mobile phone has opened up a world of opportunity.” –Prof. Jenny Aker, assistant professor of economics at the Fletcher School of Tufts University The Financial Times has just published a story online and in print in their World Food supplement about the effects of mobile phone technology on smallholder farmers in Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Aleksandr Kalanda, Aleksandr-Alain Kalanda, Clients, Ending Poverty, Farmers, Financial services, Financial Times, Kenya, Loan Officer, Loans, Malawi, Markets, MFI, Microfinance, Mobile Banking, OIBM, Opportunity Bank in Malawi, Opportunity International, Opportunity Malawi, Poverty, Smallholder farmer, Technology
Melinda French Gates on the Impact of Agricultural Finance
Want to do more to impact global poverty? In an interview in the August issue of Smithsonian magazine, Melinda Gates outlines the techniques the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is using to fight global poverty in the 21st century. (“Melinda French Gates on Saving Lives,” by Terence Monmaney) It’s part of the magazine’s 40th-anniversary issue, featuring ”40 Things You Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Agriculture Microfinance, Agrifinance, Asia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cell phone banking, Clients, Community, Crop insurance, Education, Ending Hunger, Ending Poverty, Farmer, Farmers, Financial services, Green Revolution, Healthcare, Hunger, Insurance, Loans, Malawi, MasterCard Foundation, Melinda Gates, MFI, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Mobile Banking, Opportunity International, Savings, Schools, Smallholder farmer, Students, Technology, The MasterCard Foundation, Training, Weather-index crop insurance, Women, Women's Opportunity Network, Women's Philanthropy, WON
Spotlight on Agricultural Finance: An Interview with an Agriculture Finance Officer
“Most of the world’s poor are smallholder farmers and their families. By targeting them, we can dramatically reduce extreme poverty and food insecurity.” -UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, addressing the Malawian parliament on May 29, 2010. Through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the MasterCard Foundation, Opportunity is now offering greater financial Read more…
Tagged accra, Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, andrew koehler, Ban Ki-moon, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Clients, Community, Education, Ending Poverty, Farmer, Farmers, Financial Times, Ghana, Insurance, Loan Officer, Loans, Malawi, MasterCard Foundation, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Savings, Smallholder farmer, Technology, The MasterCard Foundation, Training, Uganda, United Nations
Crop Insurance: Protecting Farmers Against the Effects of Climate Change
Jeffrey Ebarrita (right) uses a GPS device to survey the land of Rodolfo Felipe, an Opportunity crop insurance policyholder in the Philippines. A recent UPI wire story, which highlights Opportunity International’s weather-index crop insurance, hails microinsurance as an exciting new tool to help communities in the developing world face the worst impacts of climate change. The article, Read more…
Tagged Africa, Agricultural finance, Agriculture, Asia, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Climate Change, Drought, Farmer, Koko Warner, Malawi, Microfinance, Microinsurance, Opportunity International, Poverty, Shadreck Mapfumo, Smallholder farmer, United Nations, UPI wire story, Weather-index crop insurance
Spotlight from the Field: Filipino Farmers Weather Life’s Typhoons
Having been ravaged by four back-to-back typhoons, the Philippines is enduring a humanitarian crisis on a national scale. Farmers have lost entire crops, families have lost thriving businesses and community members have had to lean on one another for support. The good news is that MicroEnsure, Opportunity International’s microinsurance subsidiary, and TSKI, one of Opportunity’s Read more…
Tagged Crop insurance, Farmers, MFI, Microensure, Microinsurance, Philippines, Smallholder farmer, TSKI
