We’re pleased to see that investors can once again lend to entrepreneurs in Kenya through Micro Africa Ltd.
Right now Micro Africa has six new Kenyan loans open for bidding – and from what we’ve heard many more should be on the way. For instance there’s 26-year-old Ann who runs a retail shop and hopes to hire an assistant once her business expands. And there’s 44-year-old Daniel Ngumba who’s looking to buy two more cows.
The platform has been slow on Kenyan opportunities for the last six-eight months. In fact Micro Africa hasn’t uploaded loans from Kenya for almost 1 year. So why did they decide to come back to the MYC4 platform?
James Mugambi, Executive Director of Micro Africa, explains:
– We have resumed posting loans on the MYC4 platform following the stabilisation of the Kenya shilling currency against major international currencies because we have always believed that MYC4’s way of raising Loan Capital for MFIs is very efficient.
– We as Micro Africa Directors do not have to spend a lot time and resources fundraising for working capital of our operations but can now instead concentrate in lending and Product Development. Our experience in fundraising from banks and other international funders take average of 6-8 months before we conclude the transaction. So MYC4’s platform is always a great relieve when it comes to accessing funds for our clients.
Micro Africa is not the only provider who’s active in Kenya. KEEF joined the platform last week and has already uploaded more than 40 loans. Read more about KEEF in this blog post or on their new provider profile.
Whit that many loan uploads, I hope Micro Africa can find the time to handle the loans they have taken over from Growth Africa
Many of the loans in Growth Africa seems to default soon, as Micro Africa does not take any action at all – and that is NO ACTION IN ANY WAY AT ALL.
Not even answering questions in the forum of the company they have taken over
Please MYC4 – close this provider as soon as possible, as Micro Africa is not able to handle the current loans.
Micro Africa is the new Ebony !!
Hello Al,
More than 60,000 euro has been repaid on Growth Africa loans since Micro Africa officially took over the portfolio, so I’m not sure on which basis you’re building your accusations.
Micro Africa is a well established and well-run institution and their Kenya operations are perfectly capable of collecting on Growth Africa’s portfolio while continuing with their own loan activity. I suggest you visit their website here : http://www.microafricagroup.com
I appreciate that you would like some answers in the Forum, however Micro Africa needs to spend the resources that have been allocated to this portfolio on the actual collections to ensure that investors receive their due repayments from Growth Africa’s clients.
Best Regards,
Githa
MYC4 Operations Manager
Hi Githa
The reason for my accusation is:
1. Questions to provider (Growth Africe) is not answered att all since … well… long before Micro Africa took over Growth Africa
2. It’s not only me questioning what is happening – perhaps because it looks the the same pattern as Ebony
3. Unanswered questions why loans are defaulted without any action or information if there is any action to secure guarantor or goods
4. For some reason it looks like Micro Africa is able to handle their own loans, as there is only a few questions in forum regarding payments – all answered from Micro Africa. To the contrary of the Growth Africa forum – almost all questions since august is about missing payments or defaulted loans – and no response from Growth Africa.
And that’s the punch line – information.
Micro Africa could have just made a few comments to show they existed and was handling (or was able to) the loans from Growth Africa.
Perhaps just updated the provider information to show the new ownership.
Therefore my suggestion to close Micro Africa – either they don’t care about Growth Africa, are unable to track the loans or just use Growth Africa as a cash cow.
Hello Al,
I can understand why you would like more information on the loans. However, it is a very challenging task to transfer a loan portfolio from one institution to the other. You have to not only transfer the loan files and all historical data, you also have to transfer the relationship with the borrowers and the institutional knowledge that is required to manage the particular loan portfolio. Our staff in Kenya have been spending a large amount of time on this process for the past 6 months and they have weekly meetings with both Micro Africa and Growth Africa to ensure that everything is progressing well. Updating investors on individual loans is unfortunately not at the top of the agenda here.
MYC4 accepts that we have made serious errors in the past which to a certain extent warrants the critique and accusations that our investors are sending our way. That being said, we cannot tolerate unfounded accusations of fraud towards our business partners, in this case Micro Africa. I can assure you that we have no intentions of closing down our relationship with Micro Africa. It is one of the most stable and professionally managed microfinance institutions in the region with very credible investors, operating in 4 countries at the moment. The Kenya operations alone disburse in excess of EUR 800,000 in new loans every month. The Growth Africa portfolio taken over by Micro Africa is largely insignificant in terms of Micro Africa’s capacity to manage.
I hope this answers your questions.
Best Regards,
Githa
MYC4 Operations Manager
@ al: I did a check on my own portfolio of 97 active loans at the end of january 2012 and disagree with you. Of my 97 active loans 29 are not on track. 6 of those are loans from the Growth Africa portfolio now taken over by Micro Africa, and none of the other 23 is a loan from a Micro Africa branch.
One of the Growth Africa loans has been repaid completely by now (february 2nd). The others are one or two terms behind schedule. I do hope Micro Africa uses it’s resources to get them back on track.
Although I would welcome a monthly update on how they are doing with taking over the portfolio of Growth Africa, getting the money on my account will do for now. I hope to see those loans disappear from my behind shedule list at the end of february or march.