Agriculture remains a vital part of Kyrgyzstan’s economy and a refuge for industrial workers. It accounts for more than 38% of the country’s GDP. 25% of population live below the poverty line.
The Institution:
OXUS Kyrgyzstan (OKG) is a Tier 3 microfinance institution created in 2006 by OXUS Group and ACTED. It is a responsible company committed to providing financial services to the working poor and under-banked in Kyrgyzstan.
Impact:
OKG OXUS creates and provides effective microfinance services to improve the sustainable livelihoods of its clients. It serves 7,008 active borrowers (47% women and 57% in rural areas) and manages a portfolio of €6.6 million. It operates in 2 of the largest cities (Bishkek and Osh) and 5 out of 7 regions through a network of 11 branches and 113 employees.
During the first six months of the year, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation made new investments in Central Asia. It granted a new loan in USD equivalent to € 895,000 to the Tajik microfinance institution Humo. Humo is a progressive and leading microcredit deposit organisation whose main activity is to provide quality, affordable financial services to the rural population. To date, this institution has nearly 57,000 active borrowers, 42% of whom are women and 80.5% of whom live in rural areas.
The Foundation also granted a new loan to OXUS Kyrgyzstan for a total amount in local currency equivalent to € 708,000. OXUS Kyrgyzstan is a microfinance institution that offers individual and group loans to its clients who work mainly in the agricultural and livestock sectors. The institution currently has 7,600 active borrowers, 55% of whom are women and 57.2% of whom live in rural areas.
The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is currently supporting 20 microfinance institutions in Eastern Europe and Central Asia with total commitments in the region amounting to € 20.1 million, that is 21% of the Foundation’s commitments as of end of August 2019.
Created in 2008, under the joint impetus of the directors of Crédit Agricole S.A. and Professor Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Grameen Bank, the Grameen Crédit Agricole SA Foundation is a multi-business operator that contributes to the fight against poverty through financial inclusion and entrepreneurship with a social impact. As an investor, lender, technical assistance coordinator and fund advisor, the Foundation supports microfinance institutions and social enterprises in nearly 40 countries.
At the initiative of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole S.A., Solidairity Bankers is a skills-sponsorship programme open to Crédit Agricole Group employees on behalf of the organizations supported by the Foundation. Since the beggining of the programme, thirteen missions were launched.
A new Solidarity Bankers mission is to be filled in favour of OXUS Kyrgyzstan. OXUS is a microfinance institution established in 2006 that provides financial services to under-banked people in Kyrgyzstan. The institution serves more than 7600 active borrowers (55% women and 57% in rural areas) and manages a portfolio of €7.2 million. The Solidarity Banker will be responsible for supporting OXUS in the production of a Marketing plan and a Client Loyalty programme. The mission is scheduled for the fourth trimester of 2019.
HOW TO APPLY
To discover the detailed offers of the missions:
Go to the CA Solidaires website “Find a project”
Enter the search bar: “Grameen”. All the Solidarity Leave offers will appear!
Click on the offer of your choice, you will find all the information you need to apply.
More information: carolina.herrera@credit-agricole-sa.fr
Created in 2008, under the joint impetus of the directors of Crédit Agricole S.A. and Professor Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the Grameen Bank, the Grameen Crédit Agricole SA Foundation is a multi-business operator that contributes to the fight against poverty through financial inclusion and entrepreneurship with a social impact. As an investor, lender, technical assistance coordinator and fund advisor, the Foundation supports microfinance institutions and social enterprises in nearly 40 countries.
The Foundation continues to invest in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
In 2018, The Foundation continued to invest in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, granting a total of seven loans to six partners for a total of €7.6 million, wich represents 19% of the new investments made over the year.
The Foundation invested for the first time in Bosnia-Herzegovina, granting a loan of €2 million to Mi-Bospo, a micro-finance institution that provides access to credit and non-financial services to private individuals, in particular to women entrepreneurs. The institution moreover provides responsible financing by applying the consumer protection principles which play a significant role in the development of female entrepreneurship. Mi-Bospo has more than 22,500 clients at this time, 64% of whom are women. The Foundation also provided a first loan of €1 million to Mikra, a microfinance institution founded by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) which provides access to affordable, quality financial and support services to the poorest working populations (mainly women who account for 70.2% of its 13,400 clients).
In Kazakhstan, the Foundation granted a second loan in local currency equivalent to €608,000 to Bereke, a microfinance institution which it has financed since 2017. The mission of Bereke, which has 5,200 clients, 76% of whom are women, is to help improve the standard of living of citizens through economic support provided by means of loans to small and microenterprises as well as by means of agricultural, consumer or housing loans.
The Foundation has also granted a new loan (the third since 2016) to the microfinance institution Oxus Kirghizstan, for an amount of €687,000 over a period of three years. The institution provides individual and group loans to nearly 7,000 clients, most of whom work in agriculture and livestock breeding.
The Foundation has also financed a new partner Agency for Microfinance in Kosovo (AFK) with a loan of €1.4 million over three years. AFK is an institution that aims to improve the living conditions in the country by offering small and microenterprises access to sustainable financial services. It has 17,500 clients, 78% of whom live in rural areas.
Finally, in Tajikistan, the Foundation granted two loans for a total amount of €1.9 million to Humo, an MFI partner since 2017. The Foundation has thus granted a total of three loans to this institution, the main activity of which is to provide affordable, quality financial services to people living in rural areas, as well as to promote the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the country’s poor regions. Humo has nearly 50,000 clients at this time, 81% of whom live in rural areas, and 44.4% of whom are women.
OXUS Kyrgyzstan and its six commandments for the Covid-19 crisis
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation has worked on several initiatives to better support the microfinance sector. OXUS Kyrgyzstan is one of the microfinance institutions that has benefited from the Foundation’s response to the crisis. Five questions to Denis Khomyakov, CEO of OXUS Kyrgyzstan (OKG)
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The Covid-19 crisis has strongly influenced Kyrgyzstan’s economy and your organisation. What measures have you adopted to cope with it?
The crisis has hit the economy and the health system of Kyrgyzstan hard. With border closures and lockdowns, industry and agriculture declined, and transport services collapsed. Although new activities emerged (such as delivery services), Covid-19 affected the country’s economy and by extension our clients and business.
In this context, we were well prepared at OKG. As early as February, we first protected our staff with home-based work or short time working at 2/3 of the salary; which involved the digitalisation of our activities. In May, we adopted both remote and on-site work, thanks to the required anti-Covid measures foreseen in the Covid-19 Business Continuity Plan (BCP), which quickly became operational.
We always made sure to communicate well. To achieve this, we first set up a Covid-19 Committee consisting of members from different departments and myself to structure communication and define operational measures. Several actions were taken: we organised communication with agencies and clients, established loan restructuring and client support, and decided to negotiate with lenders to obtain a grace period on repayments. We also had regular exchanges with various stakeholders: the governance that guided and advised us, the lenders who have done coordinated actions to ensure the continuity of our activities, and the National Bank that provided us with clarifications on the restructuring and exemptions possibilities.
What was the Foundation’s support to strengthen OKG’s response?
The Covid-19 surveys carried out by the Foundation were well organised and always took place at the right time. The Covid-19 Observatory launched by the Foundation, where the results of the surveys and other useful articles are published, has been valuable to us in assessing our situation and position in the region. The Foundation also led OKG’s group of lenders to implement the coordinated restructuring measures and extensions; at the Foundation’s instigation, with regular monitoring by Julie Serret, a Foundation’s Investment Manager, we acted immediately to prepare for the worst-case scenario and agreed terms with the lenders all together.
Which were the main measures implemented by this group of lenders?
The group of lenders decided to extend all payments payable between May and December 2020 for 12 months. The lenders also simplified reporting by collecting information through a common document, which gave us more time to focus on other issues. They also provided us with tools to create a BCP, to restart the business while protecting staff. As a result, we did not really worry about the liquidity situation. We were able to pay our staff salaries and benefits immediately.
What lessons do you draw from this period for the evolution of microfinance?
Here are my six commandments:
Anticipate. Every business should have a BCP for these kind of events. Having an IT disaster recovery plan is very useful – it helped us a lot in reacting to the crisis and keeping the system running.
Take care of the staff; inform them of the situation and the measures decided.
Make decisions. Do not be too late but think twice.
Inform investors and lenders of the situation and provide forecasts (detailed, even if you do not know how things will develop) for the coming months.
Contact your Board of Directors often. Its composition and experience will enable you to get through any type of crisis.
Be digital. Digital channels are valuable for communicating with clients and staff. Covid-19 has pushed us to think and to be more digital.
What are the prospects for OKG in 2021?
The company continues its development and growth. We plan to open two new branches in rural areas and to serve low-income clients. We plan to introduce tablets to speed up loan disbursement, but also to collect less paper and be more environmentally friendly. We also aim at developing green loans to help combat air pollution and intensive energy use in Kyrgyzstan.
Other initiatives such as our work on customer loyalty and the project to support women entrepreneurs initiated in early 2020 have been slowed down by the health crisis. We will take them up again. We will remain a reliable company for our clients, with a zero-exclusion approach!
