AFI member institutions are taking immediate action to ease the financial burdens faced by individuals and small businesses as economic activity decelerates amid the global coronavirus outbreak.

Microfinance industry association Sa-dhan has reached out to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking an extension of the loan moratorium benefits to the industry.

Thai consumer finance firm Thitikorn recently secured agreement from the shareholders of Myanmar Financial International Limited (MFIL), a microfinance provider in Myanmar, to buy the company for no less than two times its audited book value. 

To help banks help their customers through these trying times, many fintech providers are extending free, discounted, or accelerated deployment offers to financial institutions.

Congo-based fintech Flash has launched a payment tool including a Visa card offering, Flash Money, for the Congolese market.

Aligned with its social purpose and in light of COVID-19’s progress in Latin America, BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s six institutions in five countries in the region have adopted urgent and necessary measures to help its 2.2 million clients cope with this situation.

A statement on COVID-19 by the Dutch emerging market impact investors, under the banner of NpM.

Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has been significantly impacted by the ongoing coronavirus outbreak and is forecast to fall sharply from 2.4% in 2019 to -2.1 to -5.1% in 2020, the first recession in the region over the past 25 years, according to the latest Africa’s Pulse, the World Bank’s twice-yearly economic update for the region.