SPONSORS

SAM Sponsors - Silver

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the bank of the European Union, and invests in projects in more than 130 other countries around the world. The bank helps the EU meet its objectives globally including to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals, and aims for the highest developmental impact: getting other investors on board for projects and initiatives that bring support to microenterprises and start-ups as well as larger companies and key infrastructure.
The EIB has been active in Africa since 1963, and in the past 15 years has invested EUR 500m in over 50 microfinance institutions on the continent, supporting thousands of small businesses and sustaining hundreds of thousands of jobs.
More information: www.bei.org/microfinance

FPM is a fund aiming at reducing poverty and improving the living standards of people in DR Congo. It supports the construction and development of an inclusive and responsible financial system by providing tailored technical assistance and refinancing services to financial institutions serving micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and the low-income working populations, which have a real potential of development.
The MPF was institutionalised in 2010 as a non-profit association (ASBL) under Congolese law with Mr Jean-Claude THETIKA as its Managing Director. In 2014, the sister vehicle, the FPM SA, whose Managing Director is Mr Carlos Kalambay KABANGU, was created to also ensure the refinancing of financial institutions in DR Congo. The two entities are now complementary: FPM ASBL provides technical assistance to financial institutions offering financial products and services to MSMEs, and FPM SA is dedicated to the refinancing of financial institutions.
The two vehicles are different legal entities, each with its own governance bodies. The shareholders/donors of both vehicles are partly the same.
More information: https://fpm.cd/en/

SAM Sponsors - Bronze

Created in 2008 by the joint initiative of the directors of Crédit Agricole S.A. and the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and founder of the Grameen Bank, Professor Muhammad Yunus, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is committed to promoting microfinance and socially responsible entrepreneurship. 
The Foundation’s mission is to contribute to the fight against poverty and inequalities by promoting financial inclusion and social impact entrepreneurship. Investor, funder, technical assistance coordinator and fund advisor, the Foundation finances and supports microfinances institutions, enterprises and projects that promote inclusive finance and rural development around the world.
As of today, the Foundation supports 88 partners in 36 countries, mainly in Sub Saharan Africa that gathers 51% of its partners. At the heart of the Foundation’s action is female entrepreneurship and the development of rural economies: of the 7.3 million clients of the microfinance institutions supported, 73% are women and 85% live in rural areas.
More information: gca-foundation.org/

Arendt & Medernach is the leading independent business law firm in Luxembourg.
The firm’s international team of 380 legal professionals represents clients in all areas of Luxembourg business law, with representative offices in Hong Kong, London, Moscow, New York and Paris.
Our service to clients is differentiated by the end to end specialist advice we offer, covering all legal, regulatory, taxation and advisory aspects of doing business in Luxembourg.
Moreover, Arendt has structured a dedicated impact team which has gained significant experience in structuring microfinance and impact investing funds as well as other impact projects.  The Arendt Impact Team offers high quality skills to selected impact finance projects initiated by specialised managers, first time fund initiators and/or private and public players for their innovative/pilot projects. 
The Arendt Impact Team claims, without utopia, for a better world in helping their clients to reach the maximum impact by providing top tier legal skills at adapted financial conditions.
More information: BUIMImpactTeam@arendt.com

Microfact, a joint initiative of ADA and BRS, aims to strengthen the financial and social performances of Microfinance and Microinsurance Institutions through the use of tools and workshops.
More information: www.microfact.org

La SIDI, Solidarité Internationale pour le Développement et l'Investissement, is a social investor created in 1983 by the french NGO CCFD-Terre Solidaire to improve the living conditions of vulnerable populations in developing countries, through the creation and strengthening of income-generating activities at the individual and community level. SIDI supports local actors, such as financial institutions and producer organizations, which serve populations excluded from traditional financial and economic channels. It provides both financing (equity investments, loans, guarantees) and support for institutional strengthening (governance, management, strategy, social performance, etc.), in response to their needs and to support their development. Since 2017, SIDI decided to adopt an approach called Ecological and Social Transition (EST) to guide its activities, and to expand support to its most fragile partners, with the objective of improving their know-how and sustainability. These two priorities have allowed SIDI to reinvigorate the dialogue with partner organizations. Through EST, SIDI promotes finance that fosters holistic development, which is socially just and ecologically sustainable, and is based on values of solidarity, trust, responsibility and transparency. SIDI’s shareholders- individuals and institutions - entrust it with resources to carry out activities in exchange for human, social and environmental returns.
SIDI has a balance sheet of €50 million and a portfolio of direct commitments that amount to €36.5 million at the end of 2020. 
Africa is SIDI's number one priority : 67% of its partners and 56% of its portfolio at the end of 2020.
In 2011, SIDI launched the FEFISOL fund: at the end of its ten years of activity, FEFISOL has invested €85.4 million in 92 partner organizations in 25 African countries. SIDI is now actively working on the creation of FEFISOL II.
In 2019, SIDI became the sole institutional shareholder of Soluti Finance East Africa, a financial umbrella under Ugandan law that supports mainly rural MFIs and POs in three East African countries: Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. 
A pioneer in solidarity-based finance in France, SIDI is certified as a social enterprise, under the legal status Entreprise Solidaire d’Utilité Sociale. SIDI shares have been certified by an independent committee of experts from Finansol since 1997
More information: www.sidi.fr

Access to Finance Rwanda (AFR) is a Rwandan not-for-profit organization established in 2010 by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) in partnership with the government of Rwanda. AFR is currently funded by FCDO, MasterCard Foundation, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and Jersey Overseas Aid (JOA). It is one of the nine members in the Financial Sector Deepening (FSD) network across Sub-Saharan Africa.   
AFR’s strategic focus is to stimulate financial sector development by partnering with financial institutions and other stakeholders to increase access to and use of financial services. It is guided by the Making Markets Work for the Poor (M4P) approach recognizing that efforts to increase financial inclusion must be carried out by market actors to be sustainable. AFR identifies and intervenes to address constraints that prevent the financial sector from serving Rwanda’s low-income population through promoting innovations and learning that result in sustainable change. Improving access to financial services for the rural poor, women and youth is of particular focus. AFR supports the Government of Rwanda’s development objectives by aligning its interventions to national policy frameworks including the Financial Sector Development Programme (FSDP) II, and the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1) 2017-2024. 
Our mission: To facilitate a diverse and inclusive financial sector that delivers real value to the economy and people, in particular, unserved and underserved populations 
Our vision: A diverse and inclusive financial sector that supports increased resilience and sustainable livelihoods for all and contributes to Rwanda's economic transformation. 
More information: https://afr.rw/

ADEC is a 100% digital Microfinance, which aims to offer sustainable support to its clients through a global offer of financial products and services, and financial education.
ADEC specializes in to ensure greater financial the financing of Mobile Money points of sale inclusion and is also interested in the agri-food value chain and crafts. 
On the Ivorian Market, we are the first Microfinance to allow the opening of accounts directly from our Mobile Application: ADEC Mobile as well as many other features.
We define ourselves as the First Neofinance.
More information: www.adec-ci.com

Sponsors of the Investors' Fair

Triple Jump is an impact-focused investment manager that provides meaningful and responsible investment opportunities in developing countries. We believe that opportunities are not spread equally around the world, but talented people are. By providing funding and support to companies in developing countries, we aim to empower individuals to improve their quality of life.
More information: https://triplejump.eu/

Verdant Capital is a specialist investment bank and investment manager operating on a pan-African basis.  Verdant Capital operates in four segments: Specialist Funds, Mergers and Acquisitions, Financial Institutions and Restructuring. Verdant Capital’s Specialist Funds segment manages three pools of capital investing in financial inclusion / micro finance focused on hybrid capital, senior debt and working capital facilities. Verdant Capital also provides financial advisory services to inclusive financial institutions / microfinance institutions. 
More information: https://verdant-cap.com/

 Sponsor of the Innovator's Village

MEDIASOFT is a computer engineering company created in 2003 in Lomé, Togo. It operates in several fields, in particular IT, management and training. It specialises in the design and development of computer applications, the creation of digital content, IT audits, training and capacity building, etc...
With its MICROFINA++ solution, an integrated management software for decentralised financial systems (SFD), and BINDOO, a digital finance platform, MEDIASOFT confirms its presence as a reliable player, a partner of microfinance institutions and it actively participates in financial inclusion. In order to ensure a local presence to its partners, MEDIASOFT has representations in Benin, Burkina-Faso, Burundi, Mauritania, Niger and DRC.
Hundreds of SFD partners, state institutions, technical and financial partners have chosen to trust MEDIASOFT because of its commitment and professionalism.
More information: https://www.mediasofthome.com/

CAGECFI is an IT expertise and management company created in 2001, whose head office is located in Lome, Togo. The company has fourteen (14) subsidiaries across Africa, divided into 
- West Africa (07): Togo, Burkina-Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal;
- Central Africa (04): Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Chad;
- Great Lakes Region (03): DRC, Rwanda, Burundi.
In addition to these countries, CAGECFI serves Guinea Conakry and two Maghreb countries, namely Morocco and Tunisia.
The firm is specialised in the design and implementation of IT applications for decentralised financial systems (DFS) and SMEs, the deployment of mobile remote banking platforms, the implementation of IT studies etc. Publisher of the PERFECT software, the first management software for microfinance institutions in French-speaking Africa
To date, CAGECFI has assisted more than 500 microfinance institutions in their digital transition and more than 15 state institutions in the digitisation of their processes.
For more information: https://cagecfi.com/ 

PARTNERS

Partner of the SAM

The Mastercard Foundation is a Canadian foundation and one of the largest in the world with over $39 billion in assets. The Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. Since its inception, the Foundation has operated independently of the company. The Foundation's policies, operations and programme decisions are determined by its Board of Directors.  
More information: www.mastercardfdn.org

Media partners of the SAM

Since 2005, MicroCapital has been publishing information on microfinance, financial technology, SME investing and other forms of impact investing monthly in the MicroCapital Monitor and daily at https://MicroCapital.org. As impact investing is an emerging industry with a legacy of charity, objective news with a business orientation is scarce. MicroCapital seeks to counter this scarcity by providing candid information with the goal of encouraging rational growth of the industry.
More information: www.microcapital.org

FinDev Gateway is CGAP’s independent knowledge platform where the global financial inclusion community comes together to share the latest research, lessons and ideas on making financial services work for poor people. 
The platform is a public good available to anyone interested in financial inclusion.
In addition to the English site serving a global audience, FinDev has three regional platforms in French, Spanish and Arabic, which focus on their respective audiences in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Arab world.
For more information: www.findevgateway.org

Partners of the Innovator's Village

The Mastercard Foundation is a Canadian foundation and one of the largest in the world with over $39 billion in assets. The Foundation was established in 2006 through the generosity of Mastercard when it became a public company. Since its inception, the Foundation has operated independently of the company. The Foundation's policies, operations and programme decisions are determined by its Board of Directors.  
More information: www.mastercardfdn.org 

The LHoFT (Luxembourg House of Financial Technology) is Luxembourg’s dedicated Fintech centre where finance and technology interact to foster innovation and develop solutions to shape the future of financial services. Offering Fintech incubation, co-working and a soft-landing platform, the LHoFT also connects, engages with and creates value for the broader Fintech ecosystem: financial institutions, IT industry, investors, research and academia as well as regulatory and public authorities.
More information: https://lhoft.com/en/

Africa Fintech Forum (AFF) is a leading African non-profit fintech organisation that strives to promote the development of the fintech industry in Africa. AFF supports ecosystem development and facilitates inclusive collaboration among fintechs via numerous activities :
-    supporting the creation of national fintech associations across Africa;
-    providing insights into the fintech market and developing knowledge;
-    workshops for fintech intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs; 
-    training and support for national fintech hubs;
-    collaborating with regulators, government agencies, financial hubs and technology parks to enhance the ecosystem.  

The Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) is an international business association that promotes a sustainable decentralised renewable energy industry for the 21st century, activating markets for affordable energy services, and creating local jobs and inclusive economies.
More information: https://www.ruralelec.org/