Successor Organizations
Ensuring Long-Lasting Impact Through Legacy Organizations
Agrocapital
Bolivia
ACDI/VOCA worked with a Bolivian government agency to form Agrocapital, a nonprofit foundation for lending in rural areas. Agrocapital inherited a troubled loan portfolio and a legacy of rural lending failures, but in just five years of operation it changed the general perception that rural lending in Bolivia was not feasible. Agrocapital’s loan portfolio grew from under $1 million to more than $10 million and realized an on-time repayment rate of 97 percent. Agrocapital’s rapid, solid growth, fostered by ACDI/VOCA technical assistance and training, demonstrates that rural customers repay their debts as well as urban borrowers and that rural financial institutions can be both profitable and self-sustaining. ACDI/VOCA staff provided technical assistance and training to the staff of the Agrocapital Foundation and its rural borrowers and staff assisted Agrocapital in designing products, services, procedures, manuals and management information systems. ACDI/VOCA continues to work with Agrocapital as the foundation applies for a license to form a private financial fund.
Bai Tushum & Partners Micro Credit Co.
Kyrgyzstan
With funding from USAID, ACDI/VOCA and Swiss Caritas contributed a total of $1.2 million in capital to help establish the Bai Tushum Financial Foundation, now called Bai Tushum & Partners Micro Credit Co., in September 2000. Bai Tushum was originally a consolidation of three independent credit programs in Chui, Osh and Jalalabad that had been plagued with high delinquency and a variety of other problems. Upon the completion of the program in August 2005, BTFF had branches in Osh, Jalalabad and Bishkek and 10 suboffices throughout Kyrgyzstan, was operationally and financially sustainable, and had an outstanding loan portfolio of $5.6 million extended to almost 3,000 borrowers. In 2004 USAID presented the Eagle Award to Muhammad Junaid, ACDI/VOCA’s longtime technical advisor to BTFF for his “outstanding technical assistance and exemplary leadership in developing the microfinance sector in Kyrgyzstan.” ACDI/VOCA has continued to provide technical assistance to the foundation, and today Bai Tushum is acknowledged as one of the leading financial institutions in Central Asia. It recently registered a limited liability company, Bai Tushum & Partners Micro Credit Co., with chartered capital of $3.2 million to attract equity investments. Bai Tushum maintains 4,000 active clients and a portfolio of $10 million.
Bereke
Kazakhstan
Bereke is a public association formed to address the highest priorities of communities in the areas of civil society development, essential infrastructure, social services and employment needs in order to ease ethnic tensions and prevent conflict in southern Kazakhstan. The association, which was established as a successor to ACDI/VOCA’s Community Action Investment Program, works with community partners that are conflict-prone due to ethnic tensions resulting from a perceived lack of equal access to municipal financial resources and a high rate of unemployment, especially among university graduates. The region has witnessed an upsurge of activities of Hizb-ut-Tahrir, in particular. Bereke provides training in community mobilization, leadership, strategic planning, business development, fundraising, project sustainability, public awareness/advocacy campaigns and healthy lifestyles, as well as technical and engineering consulting and information dissemination activities for communities, nongovermental organizations, private businesses and government entities.
CredAgro
Azerbaijan
In response to the lack of capital available to small- and medium-scale farmers in rural Azerbaijan, ACDI/VOCA established CredAgro in July 2000 under a grant from USAID. Since then, CredAgro has served the people of the former Soviet republic as a nonbank credit institution, with nine branches throughout northwestern, northeastern and southeastern Azerbaijan. Currently, CredAgro operates in more than 20 regions including Masalli, Gelilabad, Lenkoran, Guba, Khachmaz, Zaqatala, Ismailli, Tovuz and Absheron Peninsula.
East African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA)
Uganda
To accelerate the development of a fine coffee sector in eastern Africa and increase the region’s export to the U.S. and other countries, ACDI/VOCA partnered with the Specialty Coffee Association of America/Specialty Coffee Institute (SCAA/SCI) to implement the Specialty Coffee Promotion in Eastern Africa (SCOPE) program from 2002-2006. The program helped to establish and strengthen the capacity of the East African Fine Coffees Association (EAFCA). In particular, SCOPE helped the EAFCA Secretariat to plan, manage and promote activities, recruit new members, develop relationships with partners, donors and members, and eventually become financially self-sustainable. As a membership organization, EAFCA promotes partnerships and networks among those interested in high-quality coffee production, processing and marketing in the eastern Africa coffee-growing region. EAFCA represents farmers, exporters, importers, retailers, roasters and coffee professionals from Europe, the Americas, Asia and 11 countries in eastern and southern Africa, and coordinates market initiatives. Since 2004 EAFCA has sponsored an annual African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition to promote high-quality coffees and provide a forum for exporters to negotiate and enter into contracts with roasters, buyers and retailers. Other membership benefits include market linkages, promotional opportunities, quality enhancement programs and regional policy advocacy. Training workshops and regional meetings encourage best practices and information sharing throughout the network.
Frontiers, LLC
Kyrgyzstan
In August 2004, ACDI/VOCA established Central Asia’s only locally based wholesale lender to the microfinance sector, Frontiers LLC, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. As a direct result of its strong growth and a commitment to cost containment, Frontiers became operationally self sufficient well ahead of projections. Through Frontiers, ACDI/VOCA's project Central Asia Microfinance Alliance II will consolidate the sustainability of the institution and help support it to serve small-scale microlenders throughout Central Asia.
Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd. (IFFCO)
India
IFFCO is a proud member of ACDI/VOCA and well it should be. The largest fertilizer producer in Asia and one of the largest in the world, the co-op traces its existence to a report written by ACDI in 1967 on the Indian fertilizer market. A team headed by Don Thomas, later president of ACDI, recommended a $125 million project to create the new venture, which was aimed at making India self-sufficient in food production. It was funded by U.S. agricultural cooperatives, USAID, the British Ministry of Overseas Development and the Dutch government, with a total of $40 million. American cooperatives alone raised $1 million. The government of India and Indian cooperatives invested $85 million. Thomas served as president of Cooperative Fertilizers International, which was created to provide U.S. co-op expertise and assistance for the project's construction of two modern large-scale fertilizer plants. The founding of IFFCO arguably ranks as one of the most effective projects ever undertaken with USAID funding.
KazMicroFinance LLC (KMF)
Kazakhstan
Founded by ACDI/VOCA originally as the Kazakhstan Community Loan Fund, the renamed KazMicroFinance LLC is the country’s first nonbank financial institution and, until 2001, the sole microenterprise institution that could legally disburse loans and report directly to the Kazakh Central Bank. KMF is a nongovernmental organization offering high-quality, affordable services to small business and potential entrepreneurs that want to start or improve their businesses. It supports business development through credit and training, primarily to female-owned microbusinesses. KMF applies a group solidarity model that is tailored to local economic and social conditions. KMF’s current portfolio is $19 million with 20,300 active clients, of whom 80 percent are women. Its portfolio-at-risk rate is an exceptionally low .09 percent and has remained at the same level since 2003 despite rapid growth. Over $130 million has been disbursed through 175,000 different loans.
Kosh Araket
Kyrgyzstan
Kosh Araket is a registered nongovernmental organization successor of ACDI/VOCA's USAID-funded Community Action Investment Program (CAIP). Kosh Araket’s primary objectives are to promote civil, economic, social and cultural rights and freedoms, and to foster the development of community activism. Kosh Araket works with informal and formal local leaders through a grassroots and holistic approach to community development in conflict-prone, vulnerable and marginalized areas. Kosh Araket provides informational support to former CAIP partner communities and communities working with other local and international organizations on current legal, economic and social issues. Kosh Araket also provides consulting and technical training services in various aspects of community development, including social mobilization, project proposal writing, leadership and teambuilding, organizational development, strategic planning, business development, project maintenance and sustainability, public awareness and advocacy campaigns, association development and healthy lifestyles activities for youth.
MicroInvest
Tajikistan
MicroInvest began its microlending activity in March 2002 under the USAID-funded Ferghana Valley Regional Microfinance Project implemented by ACDI/VOCA. MicroInvest was founded by ACDI/VOCA to deliver sustainable financial services to small and micro enterprises in Tajikistan and to set the standard for good microfinance practice. Today MicroInvest is one of the leading nonbank MFIs in northern Tajikistan, serving rural borrowers not traditionally targeted by commercial Tajik banks. MicroInvest has extended loans to over 6,700 entrepreneurs throughout the Tajik side of the Ferghana Valley, and its loan portfolio is over $1,400,000. MicroInvest’s major competitive achievements include high standards of service, client-responsive product design and easy access to various communities through rural suboffices.
National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM)
Malawi
NASFAM is a member-owned, democratically governed, nonpolitical organization that provides business services to its smallholder farmer members. Founded on the principles of collective action and self-reliance, the organization works to empower farmers at the grass-roots level, encouraging them to form cohesive village-based clubs and associations in order to realize increasing agricultural returns and contribute to economic development. Today NASFAM represents over 100,000 farm families.
Ukrainian Agricultural Finance Development Foundation (UAFDF)
Ukraine
UAFDF is a nonprofit organization established and registered in 1999. A legacy organization of ACDI/VOCA, UAFDF's primary focus is microlending to agricultural enterprises. It also provides technical consulting services, training and organizational support to private enterprises. Working in cooperation with government agencies, nongovernmental associations and enterprises, UAFDF is introducing new mechanisms and improved lending techniques (including participatory loan processes and competitively based credit practices) and enhancing the skills of banks, credit unions and borrowers to build a sounder and more efficient financing infrastructure.