Charles Kwizera
7 October 2008
Nyarugenge — Societe Mutuelle de garantie pour le reFinancement (SMGF), a mutual guarantee fund which is going to help give collateral security to microfinance institutions (MFI), was officially launched Monday evening at Kigali Serena Hotel.
The Governor of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR), Francois Kanimba, was the guest of honour.
SMGF was incorporated in March this year with an initial capital of Frw 513,400,000 and was authorized by BNR May.
In his remarks, Kanimba requested SMGF to always have enough money to assist micro finance institutions. He further clarified that BNR helped educate banks so that they could know that the MFIs were their first clients.
The company's objective is to support MFIs to mobilize resources to refinance their portfolios by offering guarantees to commercial banks so that they can easily lend to MFIs.
SMGF will offer guarantees to cover borrowings by MFIs and provide guarantee facilities for up to 2 years.
According to Ndahimana Emmanuel the director general of SMGF, the company was an association which includes banks , four MFIs, the private sector federation (PSF), the Federation of MFIs in Rwanda(AMIR) and AQUADEV which deals with the management of microfinancing using PDAs in isolated regions of Rwanda.
Among other dignitaries at the function, was the Charge d' affaires of the Belgian embassy Dr. Theo Baert and Robert Bayigamba, the President of the Private Sector Federation.
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