Service Providers

The challenges associated with pushing out the frontier of rural finance are well known: dispersed rural populations, high transaction costs, highly co-variant economic and climate risks, volatile food and commodity prices, lack of physical and financial infrastructure and political interference. In this challenging context, FIDES’ mission is to expand the access to reliable, efficient and sustainable financial services for clients who are excluded from the formal banking system. With its operations located primarily in Africa and Eastern Europe, the core focus of FIDES is the creation and management of successful microfinance institutions in rural areas. FIDES believes that these challenges can and must be met head on by investing in an understanding of client needs and by taking a realistic long-term view of what it takes to put viable solutions into place to meet these needs. This entails developing innovative approaches to rural finance (specialized products and technology) and investing in careful institutional development that is sound in terms of financial base, governance, management, systems and human capacity. This includes:
• Development of a sound understanding of local socio-economic environments and client demand;
• Design and build-up of new microfinance institutions;
• Management of, and investment in, microfinance institutions (MFIs);
• Design and implementation of research & development of MFIs;
• Policy analysis and advocacy. Hide