Lagos, January 20, 2014
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, today signed an agreement to invest NGN 650 million (about $4 million) in Nigerian microfinance institution Grooming Centre to increase access to finance for up to 780,000 microenterprises by 2018. The project will improve financial inclusion, and promote job creation and growth in Nigeria.
IFC’s local currency loan will help Grooming Centre offer increased financial services to economically active low income earners engaged in small-scale trading and productive microenterprises
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Grooming Centre will use IFC’s funding to reach entrepreneurs in more than half of Nigeria’s 36 states, including those in remote rural areas largely unserved by other lenders.
Dr. Godwin Nwabunka, Chief Executive Officer of Grooming Centre, said, “Grooming Centre’s mission is to empower the economically active low income earners by bringing a range of tailor
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made microfinance services to their doorstep using globally-tested best practice methodologies. Our partnership with IFC will help us strengthen the microfinance market in Nigeria, expand our coverage on a sustainable basis, and create greater income for our members.”
Solomon Adegbie-Quaynor, IFC Country Manager for Nigeria, said
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“IFC is supporting Grooming Centre to improve financial inclusion and help grow Nigeria’s economy. This loan will provide local currency finance and empower entrepreneurs and microenterprises that cannot yet access the formal banking sector.”
Grooming Centre provides access to finance for entrepreneurs at the base of Nigeria’s economic pyramid. It currently serves over 300,000 member clients with loans as small as NGN 30,000 (about $200). The organization has built a NGN 7 billion loan portfolio and employs over 1,200 people.
IFC aims to promote financial sector diversification through specialized products, including trade finance, housing finance, insurance, and micro-, small
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and medium
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enterprise finance. Over the years, IFC has invested in excess of $10 billion in more than 60 local currencies around the world to help protect borrowing companies from currency risk by enabling them to borrow in the same currency in which they generate revenue.
In microfinance, IFC is a leading investor in Sub-Saharan Africa with a fast-growing, well-performing portfolio of equity, debt and advisory projects. IFC’s portfolio includes investments in 26 microfinance institutions in 12 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, which reach over 3 million microenterprises and low-income households.
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. Working with private enterprises in more than 100 countries, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate extreme poverty and promote shared prosperity. In FY13, our investments climbed to an all-time high of nearly $25 billion, leveraging the power of the private sector to create jobs and tackle the world’s most pressing development challenges. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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