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18 posts found.

Selected Category: Gender

Finnfund invests in Wave, a mobile money provider bringing affordable services to Sub-Saharan Africa

Finnfund’s investment is a part of a financing package arranged by IFC. Other investors are Symbiotics, Blue Orchard, responsAbility, Lendable and Norfund. Mobile money service increases financial inclusion. The LDC countries where Wave operates record some of the lowest account penetrations globally and Wave’s service gives the customers access to affordable accounts and payment services […]

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SDG 5: A telecommunications operator’s best practices for promoting gender equality

June Hossel Delfaud

Sustainable development means ending discrimination towards women and providing equal opportunities for education and employment. According to the experts, gender equality and women empowerment has been conclusively shown to stimulate economic growth, which is fundamental, especially in countries with higher unemployment rates and less economic opportunity. Founded in 2010, BCS is a wholesale telecommunications operator […]

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OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I invests in food distribution platform Twiga to improve food security across Sub-Saharan Africa

OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I, the first global emerging markets impact fund in Finland, invests 3 million US dollars in Kenyan headquartered B2B e-commerce food distribution platform Twiga. OP Finnfund Global Impact Fund I joins a group of investors, led by Creadev, in a financing package totalling 50 million US dollars. Twiga operates a […]

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Finnfund’s investment in digital connectivity increases access to internet in East, Central and Southern Africa

Finnfund provides a 12 million US dollar senior loan to Bandwidth and Cloud Services Group (BCS), a telecom infrastructure provider operating in several African countries. With Finnfund’s help as a key project investor, BCS is expanding its operations in East, Central and Southern Africa. The project increases reliability, accessibility and affordability of the internet when […]

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Launching a new global industry body that convenes the entire spectrum of investors to promote gender lens investing

Some of the largest household names in the global investment industry today announced that they would be backing a new industry body set up to promote investment in women. The 2XCollaborative has been launched by the members of the 2X Challenge, a group of Development Finance Institutions and Multilateral Development Banks, in partnership with the […]

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Global gender finance initiative sets ambitious new $15 billion fundraising goal after securing more than double its original $3 billion target

The 2X Challenge, founded by the Development Finance Institutions of the G7 nations, today announced that it would raise $15 billion for gender-lens investment after surpassing its original target by 100 per cent. Finnfund joined the initiative in May 2019. At the launch of the new 2X Challenge, the organisation said it would seek to […]

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CDC and Finnfund invest in microfinance pioneer to drive women entrepreneurship in Pakistan

CDC Group, the UK’s development finance institution and Finnfund, the Finnish development financier and impact investor, have provided a US$25 million senior unsecured loan facility to Kashf Foundation, one of the leading microfinance institutions in Pakistan. Kashf Foundation promotes female entrepreneurship and has so far enabled more than a million low-income families across Pakistan to […]

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Gender lens investing gaining momentum

Over the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in gender lens investing, a strong indication that the financial sector is working to balance a legacy of lopsided investments. Finnfund, a Finnish development financier and impact investor, has since April 2019 invested over 121 million euros in companies that promote women’s empowerment in […]

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Finnfund continues to drive financial inclusion by investing in Myanmar’s microfinance sector

Finnfund makes a 5.5 million USD senior loan investment in Early Dawn Microfinance Co., Ltd. (DAWN), the third largest microfinance company in Myanmar in terms of client outreach. The financing will support DAWN’s expansion in underserved townships and peri-urban areas. DAWN started as a Save the Children Myanmar Microfinance Program in 2002 and has since […]

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Ticking boxes or setting goals? Gender lens investing is a dialogue

Kaisa Alavuotunki

Finnfund has since April 2019 invested over 121 million euros in companies that promote women’s empowerment in developing countries. I stopped to think what we have achieved in the past two years: We have joined two gender finance communities, implemented gender equality issues into our investment process through our gender statement and participated in defining […]

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