Saturday, December 11, 2010

Loan Guarantee Agreement with BDF Signed...


BDF stands for BRD Development Fund. BRD stands for Rwanda Development Bank in French. BDF has been recently established as a subsidary of BRD to provide banks and MFI (microfinance institutions) with guarantee on agriclural loans and SME loans. BDF has taken over existing agricultural guarantee facility (AGF) and women guarantee facility (WGF) from the central bank.

On Friday, December 10th, UOB was the first one that signed the agreement with BDF.

[Shaking hands with Prosper, CEO of BDF]

Under this program, banks and MFIs may receive loan guarantee up to 50% of the exposed losses. Since the guarantee covers the risks inherent to agricultural loans and SME loans that are of high risk, this program will be beneficial to the lending institutions that are making loans to these sectors.

At UOB, this program will add strength to its pool of risk mitigating programs, including USAID's DCA guarantee program on agricultural loans and Kiva loans up to $1,200 per loan.

Oh Lord, may this program be effectivcely used to expand our micro credit program to the farmers and small businesses in Rwanda... - Jeffrey

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