Solid social results for Oikocredit; investments in low-income countries up 22%
Leading social investor, Oikocredit, today announced its social performance results for 2015.
Result highlights include:
- Investments in low-income countries up 22% to € 132 million
- Clients reached through inclusive finance partners up 24% to 46 million
- Number of women clients stable at 86%
- Fair trade portfolio up 24% to € 52 million
In 2015, Oikocredit grew its investments in low-income countries (gross national income per capita of US $ 1,045 or less) by 22% from € 109 million in 2014 to € 132 million, with close to nine-tenths of these countries situated in the cooperative’s priority region, Africa.
At 31 December 2015, Oikocredit’s development financing portfolio stood at € 900.2 million, with € 735.3 million invested in inclusive finance and the rest in production and services including fair trade organizations, cooperatives, agricultural enterprises and renewable energy projects.
The World Bank estimates that two billion adults worldwide remain unbanked, representing 38% of adults globally. Through Oikocredit’s inclusive finance partners, 46 million clients were reached in 2015, up from 37 million the previous year. Of those 46 million microfinance clients, 86% were women, 51% were living in rural areas and 28% were active in agriculture.
Oikocredit supported 91 fair trade organizations in 2015 with investments totalling € 52 million — a 24% increase in Oikocredit’s fair trade portfolio compared to the previous year.
Social performance director and interim managing director Ging Ledesma said: “Oikocredit is committed to reaching more people and enterprises in a sustainable way. In addition to growing our outreach in low-income countries we are bolstering the support we provide by focusing on three global programmes for capacity building: financial services, agriculture and client outcomes.”
In 2015, Oikocredit carried out 140 capacity building engagements, totalling € 1.7 million.