Let's Talk Microfinance Guy Rodwell

Jarri Jung is Director, Financial Institutions at Triple Jump. In this episode, he discusses the outlook for the microfinance sector and talks about the opportunities and challenges of lending subordinated debt.
Key insights:
The health crisis has passed but higher interest rates and the inflation environment have replaced Covid as the main concern facing the industry.Although subdebt is not equity, #MFIs using it acts as a catalyst to growth because they can leverage up and take on more debt, and grow assets. Subdebt is normally just a carve-out of mainstream debt funds; TJ’s dedicated  subdebt fund is a unique proposition. Jarri can be reached via Triple Jump’s website (https://triplejump.eu/) or on LinkedIn.

Steven Duchatelle is the CEO of Advans Group, where he has worked for nearly 22 years.
In this episode, Steven outlines the risks and opportunities for the microfinance sector in coming quarters, before focusing on Advans’ experience of digital transformation, how it drives efficiency and customer outreach, along with potential obstacles to such transformation and the impact on Advans’ social mission.


Steven can be reached via LinkedIn or at Advans' website: (https://www.advansgroup.com/)

IMF report "Fintech: Financial Inclusion or Exclusion?", referred to during the episode:
https://www.imf.org/-/media/Files/Publications/WP/2022/English/wpiea2022080-print-pdf.ashx

Michael Kortenbusch is a Senior MSME Lending Expert, Team Leader, and the Managing Director of Business & Finance Consulting (BFC).

With 30 years of overall professional experience, of which 24 years in banking and development finance, and 16 years in agriculture lending, he has led, supervised and provided expertise in over 55 projects implemented by BFC, primarily focused on MSME finance and access to finance, agrilending, rural & value chain finance, due diligence, institutional development, operational efficiency, turnaround management, and strategy & business development. 

In the last 7 years, Michael has provided expertise in 8 long-term projects in MSME finance & agrifinance in Armenia (KfW), Azerbaijan (EBRD), Georgia (SDC), Kyrgyzstan (KfW), Nepal (KfW) and Serbia (KfW), being involved in improvement of credit technologies, procedures, strategies and tools for MSME & agrilending, capacity building to FIs for sustainable extension of loans, and improving access to finance (specifically for agribusinesses, MSMEs, farmers, rural enterprises, etc.).

Michael holds a Master Degree in Slavic Languages. He is native in German and fluent in English and Russian. 

In this episode Michael discusses the drivers of and outlook for Agricultural Value Chain Finance. 

Michael can be reached on LinkedIn or on via BFC's website (https://bfconsulting.com/) 

This podcast is brought to you by Financial Due Diligence Associates, a multilingual consulting partnership founded by Guy Rodwell, specialised in holistic, relevant and concise analysis of financially inclusive companies. 

FDDA also works with financial inclusive institutions to improve their corporate governance and reporting, besides helping asset managers access French institutions through an alliance with Oxondo, a leading Paris-based third party marketer. 

You can reach FDDA by contacting Guy Rodwell on LinkedIn, or by emailing us at info@fdda-consulting.com. 

Following up from the previous, fascinating episode with Martijn Bollen and Karin Kersten from ASA International, we interview Sazzad Hossein, CEO of ASA Kenya one of the group’s most important subsidiaries, in which he gives a brilliant view of how ASA takes advantage of digital financial services, in the form of M-PESA, while adhering to its core social mission and values.
Sazzad can be reached on LinkedIn or via ASA Kenya’s website (https://kenya.asa-international.com/).


This podcast is brought to you by Financial Due Diligence Associates, a multilingual consulting partnership founded by Guy Rodwell, specialised in holistic, relevant and concise analysis of financially inclusive companies.


FDDA also works with financial inclusive institutions to improve their corporate governance and reporting, besides helping asset managers access French institutions through an alliance with Oxondo, a leading Paris-based third party marketer.


You can reach FDDA by contacting Guy Rodwell on LinkedIn, or by emailing us at info@fdda-consulting.com.

This week we welcome ASA International. It is one of the world’s largest international microfinance institutions providing small, socially responsible loans, averaging about $166, to 2.4m low-income entrepreneurs, most of whom are women, across 13 countries in Asia and Africa. Listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker “ASAI” it has a market capitalization of about $108m.
"ASA" stands for the "Association for Social Advancement". ASA NGO was founded in 1978 in Bangladesh by a microfinance pioneer, Mr Shafiqul Haque Chowdhury, who died in February 2021. ASA NGO was the driving force behind the establishment of ASA International.

The "ASA model" has been described by some as the "Henry Ford Motor model of microfinance", which is to say that it runs an extremely low-cost and highly efficient credit delivery model with a simple, but very effective credit assessment process. ASA International adopted the "ASA Model" as developed by ASA the NGO, and greenfielded 13 microfinance institutions across 13 countries in Asia and Africa. The majority of these institutions are regulated as "microfinance banks" or "microfinance institutions" in their home markets.

From ASA International we are delighted to welcome Martijn Bollen, General counsel of ASA International, a position he has held since 2007, and Karin Kersten, Executive director of the Board and Director of Corporate Development, who joined in October 2021.

Martijn and Karin can be reached on LinkedIn or via the website at https://www.asa-international.com/. 

This podcast is brought to you by Financial Due Diligence Associates, a multilingual consulting partnership founded by Guy Rodwell, specialised in holistic, relevant and concise analysis of financially inclusive companies. 

FDDA also works with financial inclusive institutions to improve their corporate governance and reporting, besides helping asset managers access French institutions through an alliance with Oxondo, a leading Paris-based third party marketer. 

You can reach FDDA by contacting Guy Rodwell on LinkedIn, or by emailing us at info@fdda-consulting.com. 

Erik Geurts, the accomplished financial inclusion consultant, discusses the impact on emerging markets of the strong US dollar, high inflation and tighter interest rates, along with the knock impact on MFIs. He adds in some sensible prescriptions for MFIs, lenders and regulators alike. 

Based in Lima/Peru, Erik is Deputy Chair of the board of Banco D-MIRO in Ecuador and a financial inclusion consultant for several MIVs and DFIs.  Erik can be reached on LinkedIn or at egeurts.consulting@gmail.com. 

This podcast is brought to you by Financial Due Diligence Associates, a multilingual consulting partnership founded by Guy Rodwell, specialised in holistic, relevant and concise analysis of financially inclusive companies. 

FDDA also works with financial inclusive institutions to improve their corporate governance and reporting, besides helping asset managers access French institutions through an alliance with Oxondo, a leading Paris-based third party marketer. 

You can reach FDDA by contacting Guy Rodwell on LinkedIn, or by emailing us at info@fdda-consulting.com.