Old Mutual (OM), the largest financial services provider in South Africa, recently released a press release announcing a donation of ZAR 5 million (USD 710,000) to the Women’s Development Bank (WDB) Microfinance, a South African non-governmental organization (NGO) that provides micro-loans and training for poor, rural women.
The donation stems from OM’s Masisizane Fund, a nonprofit company created following the closure of OM’s Unclaimed Shares Trust, and represents the fourth partnership it has formed with like-minded organizations. Old Mutual has set aside ZAR 300 million (USD 42.7 million) of the Fund’s total ZAR 400 million (USD 57 million) exclusively for the development of women-owned enterprises.
The main purpose of the donation is to enable WDB to expand microfinance into rural KwaZulu-Natal, where Old Mutual will provide women with free financial education and WDB will provide them business training and support while encouraging them to open savings accounts. According to Rojie Kisten, director of the Masisizane initiative, supported enterprises will include small-scale farming, poultry, vegetable gardens, and sewing and baking businesses.
Per agreement between OM and WDB, loans of ZAR 300 to 4000 (USD 43 to 570) will be made to groups of five women, and individual loans ranging from ZAR 4000 to 10,000 (USD 570 1,424) to select clients, both with repayment periods of four to nine months.
Old Mutual has a history of more than 150 years as a South African mutual society prior to its public listing in 1999. Its international services and products include investment, insurance, asset management, banking, and healthcare, and are available to individuals, businesses, and corporations. According to its 2005 year-end financial report, OM had total assets of USD 160 billion, net profits of USD 2.2 billion, and basic earnings per share of USD .50. Old Mutual currently has operations in India, China, Western Europe, South America, United Kingdom, United States, and other parts of Africa. It is led by CEO Jim Sutclifee, CFO Jonathan Nicolls, and Managing Director of South Africa Paul Hanratty.
WDB began operations in 1991 as a small microfinance organization. The Group is currently comprised of WDB Microfinance (WDBMF), WDB Trust, and WDB Investment Holdings (WDBIH). WDBMF was established in 1992 and follows the Grameen Bank model of group lending. It offers two types of loan programs, namely the Livelihoods program, which targets the poorest of the poor (less than 50 percent of the South African poverty standard of ZAR 132 (USD 18.7) monthly per capita; and the Enterprise program, which enables women to advance from basic income generation to business operation. Since its inception, WDBMF has trained more than 12,000 women in financial and business education. Financial information and ratings are not available as WDB does not currently report to a third-party performance evaluator.
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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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