MFI Report

Fonkoze is known as Haiti’s Alternative Bank For The Organized Poor. Together with Sevis Finansye Fonkoze (Fonkoze Financial Services), it is Haiti's largest microfinance institution. It specializes in offering a full range of financial services to the rural poor throughout Haiti. Currently, Fonkoze and Fonkoze Financial Services have over 100,000 depositors, 50,000 active borrowers, and 30 branch offices spread throughout every department of Haiti.

In June 2004, Fonkoze spun off its largest branches to create Fonkoze Financial Services (FFS), a commercial non-bank financial institution. Fonkoze is the largest shareholder in the holding company that owns this institution. (See the separate MIX Market Profile under Sevis Finansye Fonkoze.)

The original foundation, Fonkoze, is committed to the development of innovative approaches to poverty reduction in Haiti. The foundation focuses on five leadership areas:
- Providing literacy and educational services to the clients of both Fonkoze and FFS
- Incubating new branches for transfer to FFS once they are profitable
- Developing and testing innovative financial products to be scaled up in both Fonkoze and FFS
- Monitoring the social impact of services provided by both Fonkoze and FFS
- Replicating proven models for the elimination of extreme poverty

Because Fonkoze is a "branch incubator", the opens new branch in ever more rural and poorer areas of the country and nurtures them to sustainability, because it provides educational services to clients in both institutions, and because it is constantly designing and testing new products, it will never be "financially sustainable" in the traditional sense of the term. As soon as a branch reaches sustainability, it is transferred to FFS. Its financial statements must be analyzed with this mind. As FFS becomes increasingly profitable, however, it will begin paying for the educational and social performance monitoring services it receives from Fonkoze.

The major challenges we face include the lack of infrastructure in Haiti, the political and economic instability, insecurity, and identifying and retaining quality staff. Hide