news - UNDP in Angola Allocates $32m for Economic Growth Programs Which will Include Microfinance Activitie

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UNDP in Angola Allocates $32m for Economic Growth Programs Which will Include Microfinance Activitie
April 7, 2008

MACAU, April 7th, 2009 - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Angola, a part of the United Nations’ (UN) global development network, has allocated USD 32 million for “programs aimed at the social and economic growth of Angola.” In particular, a two-year old poverty reduction program will benefit, which “aims to provide youngsters working in the informal market with training on the economy, making it possible for them to access credit to create their own business.” The program, for which no official name is given in the article, is in partnership with Banco Nacional de Angola (the Central Bank of Angola), the energy giant Chevron Corporation, and Development Workshop Angola (DW Angola), a non-profit organization working in Angola since 1981. Based in the Angolan capital of Luanda as well as Benguela, the project has benefited 23,000 people since its inception in 2006 and MacauHub reports that the UNDP plans to expand the program as well as establish another one focusing on the development of sustainable businesses. Implementing the project is a local institution (name not given) which is creating group cooperatives in conjunction with the training offered. Gita Honwana Welch, the UNDP Country Director in Angola, is cited as MacauHub’s source. The UNDP has been operating in oil-rich Angola since 1977, after an official request by the Government of Angola, and designates poverty reduction as a “key area” of its work in the country. DW Angola is the African center of an organization of the same name based in Canada. The non-profit began microfinance activities in Luanda in 1996 practicing group-lending techniques and in 1999 DW Angola increased its microfinance activities through the Sustainable Livelihoods Project (SLP) as well as expanded to the city of Huambo in 2002 with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and The Mary A. Tidlund Charitable Foundation. DW Angola launched the microfinance institution (MFI) KixiCredito in November 2004 to replace the SLP. As reported by the MIX Market, the microfinance information clearinghouse, KixiCredito is a non-profit organization which had nearly 9,100 borrowers in 2006, 64 percent of whom were women, and reported total assets of USD 5.2 million as well as a loan portfolio of USD 2.9 million. The MFI has return on assets (ROA) of 16.1 percent, a debt to equity ratio of 63.8 percent and MicroCapital last reported on KixiCredito. By Anthony Busch, Research Assistant

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