Africa received $ 2.7bn inclusion funding in 2012Africa received $ 2.7bn inclusion funding in 2012

Washington, D.C., Jan. 14, GNA – Sub-Saharan Africa received $ 2.7 billion to advance financial inclusion in 2012, according to the 2013 Funders Survey by the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP).This is the first time that it had received more than Latin America and the Caribbean, which got funding of $ 2.2 billion.On the whole, donors committed at least $ 29 billion globally in 2012, an estimated increase of 12 per cent compared to 2011.The survey said that growth in public funding for financial inclusion, which represented over 70 per cent of this global estimate, drove the overall increase over the past year.The survey findings indicate that donor governments increased their funding commitments by 16 per cent between 2011 and 2012, despite continued pressure on public resources.Eastern Europe and Central Asia ($ 4.7 billion) and South Asia ($ 3.4 billion) continued to receive most funding.In recent years the money had gone mainly to supporting microfinance but donors broadened their funding to include financial inclusion.New types of projects were added, including those that supported access to finance for small enterprises, which were excluded in previous years, as the focus was only on microenterprises.Public funders approved close to $ 3.4 billion in new projects in 2012—68 per cent more than the previous year—while they closed fewer projects ($ 1.1 billion in 2012 versus $ 2.8 billion in 2011).Commitments from private funders to the sector grew at a much slower pace of two per cent between 2011 and 2012.Even though other surveys show that microfinance investment intermediaries (MIIs), the main channel of private funding, increased their investments to retail financial service providers (FSPs) in 2012, the increase was partially driven by drawing on an existing pool of assets that were committed prior to 2012.Private commitments to MIIs grew more modestly in 2012.GNA Read Full Story