Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

 

Status update — August 10, 2016

Kiva and Advans Côte d'Ivoire have agreed to end their partnership, as the microfinance institution is no longer in need of Kiva funding. Advans Côte d'Ivoire has fully paid its outstanding balance to Kiva, and these funds have been distributed to lenders. Kiva thanks Advans Côte d'Ivoire for its collaboration and continued commitment to providing financial services to low-income communities in Côte d'Ivoire.

Partner description: 

Advans Côte d’Ivoire (Advans CI) is the fifth microfinance institution established by the international microfinance group Advans SA, already working in Cameroon, Ghana, DRC, Tanzania, Nigeria, Cambodia and Pakistan.

Advans CI’s mission is to offer credit and savings products, and other related financial services to micro, small and medium sized enterprises in Côte d’Ivoire. Its shareholders are Advans SA, the Agence Française de Développement, SGBCI (Societe Générale Côte d’Ivoire), the International Finance Corporation (World Bank group), and the Dutch entrepreneurial development bank FMO.

Advans CI opened its doors in March 2012, and after one year of operations, it had already served more than 3,000 clients (US$5,000,000 in loans).

The organization offers adapted and accessible loans to its customers, with loan sizes ranging from US$320 to US$100,000 and terms of three to 24 months. These products are easily accessible, with no obligation to deposit, and the loan application is processed in 15 days.

Advans CI also offers savings accounts with attractive interest rates, as well as other financial services like wire transfers, check cashing, and account/transaction information via SMS. Constantly enhancing its services for customers, Advans CI will soon introduce additional financial services, insurance products, and mobile banking.

In 2012, Advans CI partnered with the World Cocoa Foundation Cocoa Livelihoods Program (CLP) to finance yield-increasing agricultural inputs for smallholder cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire. The CLP increases farmer income while strengthening local service capacity through three main objectives: to improve market efficiency and build capacity of farmers and farmer organizations; to improve production and quality of cocoa at the farm level; and to improve farmers’ competitiveness on diversified farms. 

The CLP is financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, nearly 20 industry partners – including chocolate manufacturers, cocoa processors, supply chain managers and allied industries – the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH). It is implemented by a consortium of public and non-profit partners led by the World Cocoa Foundation, and covers five countries: Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria.

TechnoServe is one of the implementing partners of the CLP and leads the input credit component of the program. A nonprofit organization that works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries, TechnoServe develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. Its work is rooted in the idea that hardworking people can generate income, jobs and wealth for their families and communities. With more than four decades of proven results, TechnoServe believes in the power of private enterprise to transform lives.

Since launching the CLP Input Credit Scheme in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana in 2010, TechnoServe has linked over 6,000 farmers to over $1.25M in input financing. Over the three seasons financed, participating farmers in Côte d’Ivoire have maintained an impressive average repayment rate of 100%, even in the face of the civil conflict that rocked the nation in early 2011.