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Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 20, 2015
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, has disbursed a loan of $10 million to Hattha Kaksekar Ltd., Cambodia’s fourth-largest microfinance institution, to support the growth of micro, small, and medium businesses in the rural and agricultural sectors and help develop digital finance solutions for these enterprises. IFC’s financing is expected to help HKL more than double its micro and SME loan portfolio to $504 million from $229 million by the end of 2017.
A third of small and medium businesses in Cambodia are agribusinesses, which make up half of all SME financing needs in the country. Limited access to finance is one of the biggest constraints hindering these businesses from expanding further and becoming more competitive.
IFC’s funding will help HKL address this problem by extending more loans and providing financial services to low-income borrowers and agribusinesses in rural areas, with the number of its outstanding loans expected to grow to 154,000 from 100,000 within two years. Extending these financial services through electronic and digital channels will also help IFC and HKL meet their objectives of lowering costs and improving reach.
HKL is committed to developing an outstanding mobile banking service that will target poor and rural customers who cannot currently access the company’s financial products and services.
“By using mobile products, customers will be able to do many financial transactions anywhere and at any time, such as mobile top-ups, bill payments, loan repayments, money transfers, and other financial services,” said Hout Ieng Tong, President and CEO of HKL. “The disbursement of IFC’s loan today will contribute to Cambodia’s macro-economic growth because it will be used to directly support HKL’s micro and small business customers who work very hard to improve their lives and education.”
This is IFC’s fourth loan to a Cambodian microfinance institution this year
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By investing in and mobilizing funding for microfinance institutions, IFC aims to expand microfinance lending to more than the current 845,000 borrowers, or about 48 percent of all MFI borrowers in Cambodia.
“IFC is helping HKL to promote new and innovative products such as mobile banking to elevate its business to the next level,” said Adel Meer, IFC Financial Institutions Group Manager for East Asia and the Pacific. “By providing long-term funding to leading microfinance institutions in Cambodia, we can help them scale up their operations and increase lending to the micro, small, and medium businesses that are critical for the country’s economic growth.”
Over the last two decades, IFC has invested more than $4 billion in around 450 microfinance projects for 250 clients in nearly 100 countries with the aim of ending poverty and promoting financial inclusion.
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 about 100 countries, we use our capital, expertise, and influence to help eliminate extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity. In FY14, we provided more than $22 billion in financing to improve lives in developing countries and tackle the most urgent challenges of development. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
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About HKL
HKL was established in 1994 by a food security project by OCSD/OXFAM–Quebec, a Canadian organization that provides loans to rural people in four communes of Pursat province. In 2001, Hattha Kaksekar (HK) NGO was registered with the Ministry of Commerce and became a limited company with a new name, Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL). It received an MFI permanent license in 2007 and became a MDI “Micro-Finance Deposit Taking Institution” in 2010 with the National Bank of Cambodia. Currently, HKL has operational offices in 25 provinces/cities with a network of 152 offices in both urban and rural areas and 72 ATM machines countrywide. The company provides wide ranging products and services including loans, savings and deposits, local money transfers, ATM and mobile banking services. As of end May 2015, HKL had a loan portfolio of more than $287 million and more than 104,814 customers. HKL also has $194 million of savings with more than 209,887 savings accounts. For more information, please visit
www.hkl.com.kh
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