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Grameen Foundation partners with local Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda to Relaunch Village Phone Initiative

Grameen Foundation partners with local Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda to Relaunch Village Phone Initiative

The Grameen Foundation, a non-profit organization that tries to replicate the Grameen Bank microfinance model around the world through a global network of partner microfinance institutions, is relaunching its Village Phone initiative in Rwanda in collaboration with MTN Rwanda (a telecommunications company). The project, called Village Phone Rwanda Tel’imbere has four local microfinance institutions (MFIs) as partners. The project was initially launched in 2006, after a successful pilot scheme had run for a year.

The four partner MFIs in Rwanda lend money to clients so they can buy the telephony equipment that allows them to start village phone businesses. They are Urwego, which began its operations in July 1997 as World Relief’s microfinance program in Rwanda and has grown to be one of the predominant MFIs in East Africa. According to the MixMarket, Urwego has Total Assets of USD 1.9million, a Return on Assets of -18.54% and a Debt to Equity Ration of 16.82%. The others are The Vision Finance Company, part of World Vision, with over 23,000 clients in Rwanda, CARE Rwanda and, Duterimbere, which began partnering with the Grameen Foundation in early 2007.

Once the equipment has been purchased, Village Phone Rwanda Tel’imbere provides special airtime rates to the Village Phone Operators (VPOs), who can set up their services in areas where electricity is unavailable. About 50 Rwandans took part in the one-year pilot program and operators will soon be available in 14 of Rwanda's 30 districts.

Village Phone initiatives in Bangladesh and Uganda have already proved successful. The phone service becomes an economic and social lifeline to villages and the income from running the phone also enables the VPO to repay the original loan and establish a viable business for their family, often giving them an income three times in excess of the national average. There are now 293,000 VPOs in Bangladesh and Village Phone Rwanda expects to create 3,000 new operators and businesses in Rwanda over the next three years.





Grameen Foundation partners with local Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda to Relaunch Village Phone Initiative - To learn more about this author, visit David Satterthwaite's Website.

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David Satterthwaite
(Visit David's Website) David brings 10 years of experience in microfinance management, social entrepreneurship, non-profit management/fund-raising and microfinance investment research. David is the Chairman and President of Prisma Microfinance, Inc., a retail “microbank” operating in Central America. He is also Chief Editor of MicroCapital.org, a news and information service for the microfinance community and its investors. Each month, MicroCapital.org publishes the MicroCapital Monitor, the leading industry newspaper. David writes and speaks frequently on microfinance. He has been a quest speaker at many events, including: Microcredit Summit 5+: Panel on Private Investment, Milken Institute Global Conference, United Nations Year of Microcredit Symposium for Wall Street, Chicago Conference on Microfinance, Harvard Social Enterprise Conference, Dartmouth’s Business Sustainability Conference, Wharton’s Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, Stanford’s Social Enterprise Club, Columbia’s Social Enterprise Program and the Net Impact Annual Conference. Through his work with Prisma and MicroCapital, he has been featured or quoted in The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, “All Things Considered,” Reuters and SocialFunds.com. David has been recognized with the Compaq Computer Corporation Leadership Award, the City Year Inspiring Leader Award and the National Social Venture Business Plan Competition award for Best Social Impact Analysis. David has supported many non-profit and for-profit social enterprises in different capacities, including Access Technology Learning Center, Agora Partnerships, Bridges to Business, City Year, Fonkoze, Kiva and National Social Venture Competition. David holds a B.A. with Honors in Political Science from Haverford College.

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