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Oikocredit Annual Report and press release highlighting 2017
April 11 | 2018 Today Oikocredit published its annual report and press release for its 2017 financial results. full storyEnhancing coffee cooperatives’ price risk management
March 29 | 2018 From 21 February to 1 March, Oikocredit held two workshops in the Peruvian city of Jaén on price risk management (PRM) for coffee cooperatives in Peru and Colombia. full story“Oikocredit is a frontrunner”: getting to know our director of risk
February 28 | 2018 In December 2017, Oikocredit welcomed Laura Pool as our new director of risk and member of our managing board. We spoke to Laura about risk management, her passions and why she chose Oikocredit. full storyIndia summit: Putting people before profit by transforming the financial sector
February 22 | 2018 Oikocredit and Maanaveeya, an Indian subsidiary of Oikocredit, in collaboration with the Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) are to co-host a summit on 23 February 2018 in Hyderabad, India to highlight the opportunities for microfinance institutions (MFIs) to become small finance banks (SFBs) whilst remaining true to their social mission. The event brings together representatives from 15 financial institutions/stakeholders across India. full storyCoffee for generations: Colombian coffee farmers’ perseverance and environmental care
February 19 | 2018 Oikocredit partner organisation Red Ecolsierra has enabled coffee farmers in Colombia to receive fair prices and increase the quality and quantity of production despite the violence and unrest that filled the region for decades. full storyLocal presence is our strong point
February 08 | 2018 Maria Koramoa heads Oikocredit's country office in Accra, Ghana's capital, and is the deputy head of Oikocredit West Africa. As a financial expert, Maria has studied economics, sociology and education in Birmingham and the Cape Coast. She is specialised in microfinance and the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. During a Skype call, Maria shared some insights into her work. full storyOikocredit and African Guarantee Fund sign new agreement to finance SMEs
January 29 | 2018 On 25 January, Oikocredit signed a new agreement with African Guarantee Fund (AGF) to boost financing to microfinance institutions and agricultural and renewable energy SMEs in Africa. The signing... full storyA sweet deal in southern Colombia
January 24 | 2018 When it comes to committing to a business, there’s no doubting sugar cane farmer Pedro Bastidas. When asked about the development of his enterprise, he casually states: “In 2005, I exchanged my house for a sugar factory.” full storyVideo: Support for women coffee growers in Brazil
January 12 | 2018 Oikocredit partner Cooperativa dos Agricultores Familiares de Poço Fundo e Região (Coopfam) is a Brazilian coffee cooperative which is helping to empower women by supporting the production of a ... full storyOikocredit Across Continents
December 07 | 2017 Katharina Welp, communications officer at Oikocredit’s support association North East Germany in Berlin, completed a one-week exchange visit to Oikocredit’s head office in Amersfoort, the Netherlands. She met up with two colleagues from Oikocredit’s regional offices who were also in Amersfoort for an exchange. full story‘Banking on women’: empowering Kenyan women through microfinance
November 28 | 2017 “In Africa, there is nothing as important as empowering a woman. When you empower a woman, it’s as if you are empowering the whole country. KWFT is empowering me with education, with knowledge and with money.” full storyHow women coffee farmers in Brazil are building economic independence
November 17 | 2017 The Coopfam (Cooperativa dos Agricultores Familiares de Poço Fundo e Região) coffee cooperative is empowering women to produce a speciality organic coffee and improve their livelihoods full storyMicrofinance in action: Kick-starting a table football business
November 07 | 2017 Oikocredit’s longstanding partnership with Banco Pyme de la Comunidad is enabling micro-entrepreneurs in Bolivia to build flourishing, sustainable businesses full storyOikocredit’s new forum for multi-stakeholder dialogue
October 30 | 2017 Pastor Ueli Burkhalter is the seventh member of Oikocredit’s recently formed members' council (MC). The MC is a consultation and advisory body elected by Oikocredit’s member organisations to ... full story“Together, we are a movement.’’ Thos Gieskes’ first months at Oikocredit [interview]
October 19 | 2017 We caught up with Oikocredit’s managing director, Thos Gieskes, to hear about his first months at the global cooperative. In the interview, he talks about some of Oikocredit’s strengths and challenges along with insights from his journey in getting to know the ins and outs of the organisation. full storySupporting organic coffee growers in southern Ecuador
September 26 | 2017 “Being organic is not just about paper certification - it’s a state of mind. It’s close to our hearts; farmers are choosing not to use fertilisers which damage everything,” says Miguel Mosquera as he walks alongside his coffee plants. full storyIndulge in a FAPECAFES fair trade coffee at our events across Europe
September 21 | 2017 Located in the mountains of southern Ecuador, Oikocredit partner FAPECAFES is an organisation of six cooperatives seeking to improve the conditions of its farmer members by commercialising fair trade and organic coffee. full storyHow fair trade is helping smallholder coffee farmers succeed
September 15 | 2017 Fair Trade USA is the leading fair trade certifying body in North America, operating globally alongside the European-based Fairtrade International. Colleen Anunu, Fair Trade USA’s Senior Manager of Supply Chain, reflects on some of fair trade’s achievements and challenges, with a focus on the coffee sector. She also explains how Fair Trade USA and Oikocredit are teaming up to reduce price risks for coffee farmers. full storyLaura Pool appointed as chief risk officer
September 13 | 2017 Laura Pool will become Oikocredit’s chief risk officer on 18 December, heading the risk department and joining the managing board. full story
Oikocredit Argentina awards innovation in microfinance
August 31 | 2017 Oikocredit is pleased to announce that Paola González from Programa Alumbra - Fundación Banco Macro is the winner of the Oikocredit Argentina Innovative Loan Officer award. The award was presented at the 11th annual summit on microfinance: The role of microfinance in financial inclusion held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 29 August. full storyCooperatives supporting fruit farmers in northern Patagonia
August 10 | 2017 Herminio Antonio Urrutia is 61 years old and has been a member of the fruit-growers’ cooperative Primera Cooperativa Frutícola in Argentina’s northern Patagonia for over 20 years, or as he puts it: “Ever since I started my own business!” full storyMore coffee trees to fill another cup and support the smallholder farmer
July 26 | 2017 Whether you’re in need of a boost or you’re just the average coffee lover, waking up to the smell of roasted beans is what often gets us through the day. Coffee is easy to enjoy, however, we often don’t realise what it takes to get this wake-up cup into our hands. full storyLeading Agricultural Lenders Deploy $682 Million to Support Small Businesses and Farmer Livelihoods Globally
July 19 | 2017 Oikocredit and the 10 other members of the Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance (CSAF) today announced in their newly published State of the Sector report that they provided $682 million in loans to 765 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during 2016. full storyReport from Heather Keachie
July 18 | 2017 At the June meeting of the Oikocredit Canada Board, I was elected Support Association President. Let me take this opportunity to talk to you about our activities and plans. full storyStrengthening People and Planet [interview]
July 04 | 2017 As Oikocredit publishes its Social & Environmental Performance Report for 2016, Kawien Ziedses des Plantes, deputy director of social performance and capacity building, explains some of the thinking behind the organization’s approach to social and environmental performance. full story40 million people, 84% being women, reached by organisations financed by Oikocredit
June 27 | 2017 Today these results and more were released in Oikocredit’s Social and Environmental Performance Report for 2016. full storyOikocredit annual general meeting elects supervisory board members, approves dividend
June 15 | 2017 This week over 120 members and staff of Oikocredit International gathered for a week of meetings in Accra, Ghana, including the annual general meeting (AGM) and a conference with speakers from across Ghana’s financial inclusion sector. full storyAgriculture Report 2016 - Announcement
June 08 | 2017 Oikocredit's Agriculture Report for 2016 is now online. This report examines trends in the portfolio growth, quality and composition over the past four years. full storyOikocredit delivers fresh insights into rural-urban poverty
May 31 | 2017 Supporting financial inclusion in low and lower income countries by investing in microfinance institutions (MFIs) is central to Oikocredit’s mission. However, as Thelma Brenes Muñoz of Oikocredit’s social performance team says: “We also want to know more about how this work affects the lives of the people receiving loans.” full storyWorld Fair Trade Day: Celebrating Oikocredit’s partners across the globe
May 12 | 2017 Fair trade is defined as ‘a movement whose goal is to help producers in developing countries to get a fair price for their products so as to reduce poverty, provide for the ethical treatment of workers and farmers, and promote environmentally sustainable practices.’ full storyKompanion Bank blends capital and business knowledge to create self-sustainable futures
April 26 | 2017 Kompanion Bank was established in 2004 to provide loans to small scale farmers, livestock herders and shepherds in Kyrgyzstan. It has been an Oikocredit partner since 2007. However, Kompanion is a bank with a difference because it not only provides micro loans to its clients but also offers them free business development training and technical assistance in order to promote sustainable agriculture and natural resource management. full storyInvesting in healthcare and education
April 07 | 2017 Besides Oikocredit’s focus areas of inclusive finance, agriculture, renewable energy and Africa, we finance partners that provide health and educational services in low-income communities, for example in Argentina. full storyOikocredit Annual Report 2016: Diversifying for our Future
April 04 | 2017 Oikocredit's Annual Report for 2016 is now online. The Annual Report provides an update on our operations and performance, including recent developments in our focus areas of inclusive finance, agriculture, renewable energy and Africa. full storyCooperatives, banking and development economics: Thos Gieskes’ path to Oikocredit
April 03 | 2017 Today Thos Gieskes joins Oikocredit as our new managing director. With a background in development economics and over 30 years in leadership at a cooperative bank, Thos is excited about the new role with an organization he believes in. full storyOikocredit and IDB help Latin American farmers combat volatile coffee prices
March 29 | 2017 Oikocredit has teamed with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Fair Trade USA, Keurig Green Mountain and Catholic Relief Services for a unique three-year capacity building project to support smallholder coffee farmers facing volatile markets. full storyOikocredit exceeds € 1 billion in financing to partner organizations
March 22 | 2017 Today Oikocredit announced its annual results at a press conference in Frankfurt, Germany. The cooperative achieved another successful year in financing its partner organizations to improve the quality of life of people in low-income countries. full storyFrom good intentions to a sustainable future
March 01 | 2017 Oikocredit is not simply committed to delivering microfinance to clients in developing regions, it is also dedicated to ensuring that its clients have a sustainable future. Our capacity building programme focused on client outcomes is key to achieving this aim. full storyTransforming tea estates and impacting lives in northern India [part 2]
February 21 | 2017 Oikocredit’s investment enabled Darjeeling Organic Tea Estates Private Limited (DOTEPL) to buy three tea estates in Darjeeling, northern India; among them are Rangaroon and Pandam. full storyTransforming tea estates and impacting lives in northern India [part 1]
February 21 | 2017 Deep in the northern mountains of India, lies Darjeeling, a region known for producing the best designated teas. What makes that perfect cup of steaming Darjeeling possible, are the thousands of people working on tea estates. full storyOikocredit appoints new managing director
February 07 | 2017 Thos Gieskes will be welcomed as managing director of Oikocredit on 3 April 2017. full storyVideo featuring solar power solutions in India
February 02 | 2017 Punam Energy Private Limited (PEPL), based in Kolkata, is the commercial offshoot of the NGO SwitchON. All of its products are marketed under the brand name ONergy. The NGO has been instrumental ... full storyOikocredit in Africa: Decisions are a matter of good relationships
January 31 | 2017 As the crow flies, it is 4,599 kilometres between the offices of Judy Ngarachu in Nairobi, Kenya, and Yves Komaclo in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. The two regional directors represent Oikocredit on the east-west axis of the continent, with five Oikocredit offices in West Africa and four in East Africa. We spoke with them about what unifies and differentiates their work in Oikocredit’s priority region. full storySupporting smallholder farmers during Ukraine’s turbulent times
January 12 | 2017 Getting access to loans has been a challenge for smallholder farmers in Ukraine for several decades. Since the agrarian reforms following the country’s independence from Russia in 1991, mainstream investors have favoured large-scale agricultural production. full story
The rebuilding and refinancing of Ecuador’s devastated cocoa producers
December 19 | 2016 Last April’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Ecuador particularly affected communities living in the coastal area where the fair-trade cocoa growers’ associations Fortaleza del Valle and FONMSOEAM operate. full storyVideo featuring support for Rwanda's booming coffee sector
December 01 | 2016 Rusizi Specialty Coffee (RSC) is a coffee export company based in the district of Rusizi, in south-west Rwanda. Rusizi Speciality Coffee works with 2,000 smallholder farmers and three coffee cooperatives to produce high-quality coffee. full storyImproving the lives of people in rural areas through peanut farming
December 01 | 2016 Athanas Matheka, founder and CEO of Greenforest Foods Limited, a Kenyan company that produces honey and nuts, is using peanuts to improve the lives of families in Kenya’s rural areas and to reduce resource-centred conflict. Yes, Peanuts. full storyOikocredit increases equity stake in Bolivian MFI
November 24 | 2016 Oikocredit has more than doubled its investment in Banco Fie, a leading microfinance bank with a strong commitment to financial inclusion in Bolivia. Banco Fie has been a partner of Oikocredit’s ... full storyOikocredit, Triodos Investment Management and Fidosa invest in Guatemalan hydropower
November 23 | 2016 Social investor Oikocredit, impact investor Triodos Investment Management and Guatemalan bank Grupo Financiero de Occidente (Fidosa) have teamed up to provide financing worth USD 8.20 million for two run-of-the-river hydroelectric plants in the San Marcos department of Guatemala. full storyOikocredit and USAID launch partnership to advance agriculture in West Africa
November 17 | 2016 Oikocredit today announced that it is teaming up with USAID to finance West Africa’s agricultural sector. Oikocredit will provide loans to small and medium-sized enterprises, cooperatives and associations in agricultural value chains, backed up by a USAID guarantee facility. full story