http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/MicrofinancePractice/ The MicroFinancePractice yahoogroup is probably the most active around - but you do have to join to see its bookmarks- just to leap over algeria, its one of the few countries where no interest rate can be charged so there are no MFI movements - for those joined in this bookmark tells more http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/ group/MicrofinancePractice/messa ge/5309

The Ohio State listserve if the oldest know to MFI networks, you can search here http://postoffice.ag.ohio-state. edu:8100/Lists/devfinance/List.h tml

This couple of bookmarks provides a classic debrief taken from a sad case in Benin of all the ways MF can go wrong

http://postoffice.ag.ohio-state. edu:8100/Lists/devfinance/Messag e/4847.html?Language=

http://postoffice.ag.ohio-state. edu:8100/Lists/devfinance/Messag e/4848.html?Language=

The Womens Worrld banking network appears to have its largest African member in Benin http://209.18.106.71/id,9/sid,38 /

Active clients (% women of total) (port folio outstanding USD millions) (averare loan USD) Africa Benin - Africa Microfinance Network (AFMIN) 6,016,586 N/A N/A 789.76 Benin - Association d'Entraide des Femmes (ASSEF) 26,059 N/A N/A 235.00 Benin - PADME 65,236 70% 32.88 1,259.08 Burundi - CECM 17,824 65% 0.90 221.99 Kenya - KWFT 101,881 100% 32.08 588.27 Morocco - Al Amana 404,956 46% 219.37 752.37 The Gambia - GAWFA 46,987 96% 0.75 61.99 Uganda - UFT 93,154 70% 7.75 779.17

http://www.ffhtechnical.org/abou t-us/where-we-work Freedom from Hunger (FFH )works here and: Benin Ghana Madagascar Mali Senegal Togo Uganda

FFH : Founded in 1946, Freedom from Hunger is a pioneer in the integration of microfinance, adult education, training and health protection services to achieve family food security.

As a technical service provider, we have accumulated a wealth of information and experience from around the world in the development, dissemination, implementation and evaluation of integrated services

see other top ranked organsiations similar to ffh http://www.ned.com/group/econo-p olitics/news/16/98/

more on WOW's role as a microfinacier at http://www.ned.com/group/econo-p olitics/news/16/96/

Cote'D'Ivoire

AE&I’s mission is to alleviate poverty amongst the most vulnerable through high-quality, innovative microfinance services targeted particularly to women. AE&I is one of 3 different national mfi's you can support via Oikocredit Global Community via microplace.com (an ebay company - more http://www.ned.com/group/econo-p olitics/news/16/110/

Note Lending organization: AE&I Year established: 2004 Mission:

Alexandria Business Associoation & TSEP: Interesting Egyptian case of a 3-tier program: grant to get started then credit in this paper http://www.cgap.org/docs/FocusNo te_34.pdf

Grameen Foundation's first Growth Guarantee transaction in East Africa: US$5.3 million for ACSI of Ethiopia. http://www.grameenfoundation.org /resource_center/newsroom/news_r eleases/~story=296

http://www.grameenfoundation.org /where_we_work/sub_saharan_afric a/ethiopia/acsi/

Opportunity International is a MFI network I would particularly enjoy understanding more about as it seems to suggest that it cross-fertlises best business ideas for the poor across experiences in different places. It also has quite an array of different types of loans depending how many microentrepreneurs group together http://www.opportunitycanada.ca/ learn/what.html

There's a strong connection with Ghana - possibly OI'sst and clearly one of the most successful outcomes of microentrepreneurship being the way the country's largest chicken farm evolved

Ghana is one of the places served by The Hunger Project's womens farmer microcredit banks - more at http://www.ned.com/group/econo-p olitics/news/16/88/

Equity Bank http://www.equitybank.co.ke/ , which started operations as Equity Building Society in 1984, is now Kenya’s third largest company, capitalized at more than KES 69 billion. Originally a mortgage service provider, it switched its focus to microfinance in 1994, and now serves 392,822 active borrowers. It is seeking to acquire Uganda Microfinance Ltd. (UML) in an all-share deal worth KES 1.7 billion, equivalent to USD 26.9 million. Views encouraged on whether Equity Bank is good for the poor in the long term or another endgame like the dismal Compartamos in mexico http://www.google.com/search?hl= en&rls=GGLJ%2CGGLJ%3A2006-41 %2CGGLJ%3Aen&q=%2BCompartamo s+%2Bscandal&btnG=Search

Jamii Bora: Microcredit Innovation in Kenya One institution that’s doing it the right way is Jamii Bora in Nairobi, Kenya, which started in 1999 by giving loans to 50 beggars. The program requires clients to save half the money they intend to borrow. As of June 2006, it had more than 120,000 clients. Early on, however, Jamii Bora saw repayment rates that were lower than hoped for. They found the main reason people weren’t repaying loans was because of medical bills. Partnering with a local hospital, Jamii Bora offered its clients health insurance for $15 a year to cover the borrower and up to four children.

Susan Wangui, a single mother with two children, is one of the beneficiaries of this innovative approach. Susan’s husband left her when they learned she was HIV-positive. She couldn’t find work and turned to prostitution to support herself and her children. After hearing about Jamii Bora from neighbors in the slum where she lived, Susan saved her money and took out a loan to start a clothes mending and sales business. After a while, she no longer had to resort to prostitution and moved with her children out of their crime-ridden slum to a safer neighborhood. Their house has amenities she previously lacked — a floor, running water, a waterproof roof and locking doors. She also has medical insurance to pay for her HIV treatment. Susan is convinced she wouldn’t be alive without access to this treatment and couldn’t imagine what would happen to her children if she died. Now, however, she’s saving money, enough to ensure that her children will get an education and have a better life.