PAMF client Alinoro Rajaomarosata (centre) runs three businesses and has 15 employees. Businesses: ecological carbon production; hen breeding and a car repair and paint shop. Since 2011, when she received her first PAMF loan, she has increased her total revenue by at least five-fold.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
PAMF client Alinoro Rajaomarosata (centre) runs three businesses and has 15 employees. Businesses: …
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
In poor rural areas, community-based savings groups supported by AKF are often providing people with access to basic finance for the first time. During this meeting the members receive a visit from a loan officer of the Première Agence de Microfinance (PAMF), who explains how digital savings on mobile phones can help the process be even more secure and convenient.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
In poor rural areas, community-based savings groups supported by AKF are often providing people with access …
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
PAMF client Abdallah Karimo Angelo is overseeing his restaurant, one of the four businesses that he has established with the help of PAMF loans.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
PAMF client Abdallah Karimo Angelo is overseeing his restaurant, one of the four businesses that he has …
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
A Premiere Agence de Microfinance (PAMF) client in Madagascar.
AKDN / Rindra Ramasomanana
A Premiere Agence de Microfinance (PAMF) client in Madagascar.
AKDN / Rindra Ramasomanana
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The Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM) established Premiere Agence de Microfinance (PAMF-Madagascar) to serve the financial needs of the poorest in society and to support AKF’s integrated rural development project with rice farmers in Sofia.
695,000
PAMF disbursed more than 695,000 digital loans in 2021
Madagascar’s US$ 15.7 billion GDP is largely driven by extractive industries, agro-industry, banks, transport, livestock and fisheries. The economic situation in Madagascar remains complicated due to serious infrastructure deficiencies and slow GDP growth, with a recession in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Madagascar remains one of the poorest countries in Africa, with 81 percent of its population living below the national poverty line. The mainstream banking sector reaches less than 10 percent of the nation’s 28 million people. The majority of these still depend on informal moneylenders who impose excessive interest rates.
Microfinance in Madagascar
Madagascar's microfinance sector was established in 1990. It began to experience rapid growth in the past decade, with more than 30 players that reach about a quarter of the population. It is a critical segment of the financial landscape and is seen as a vehicle to help eradicate extreme poverty.
In 2005, the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF) launched an integrated rural development project in the Sofia region. Its aim was to double rice yields by training groups of farmers in alternative rice cultivation practices. To support these efforts, and to reach the poorest in society, AKAM established Premiere Agence de Microfinance (PAMF-Madagascar) in 2006.
AKDN / Lucas Cuervo Moura
Premiere Agence de Microfinance
PAMF-Madagascar is a deposit and credit institution licensed by the Central Bank of Madagascar. Its goal is to reduce poverty by fighting economic and social exclusion through access to quality financial solutions adapted to the realities of the Malagasy market. Seventy percent of its borrowers live in rural areas, taking advantage of digital financial services. However PAMF-Madagascar has diversified into different geographic areas and economic sectors, such as the urban areas of the Analamanga region, and cities such as Majunga in Boeny, where it is focused on small traders and artisans. It now has 16 branches in the Analamanga, Atsinanana, Boeny, Diana, Sofia and Itasy regions, with a client portfolio of up to 400,000 spread across the island.
As well as loans to groups for rice and vegetable production and small equipment, and group savings accounts, PAMF-Madagascar offers loans for warehousing and inventory credit in its own granaries or in borrowers’ own or village granaries.
To support the evolution of digital financing, AKAM transferred majority ownership to AKFED in 2016. In 2019, it launched its digital financial services (DFS) strategy, with an offer of mobile banking, which has become a new delivery channel for the institution. PAMF-Madagascar disbursed more than 611,000 DFS loans in 2020. These valued US$19 million and accounted for more than 10 percent of its total portfolio.
As part of its commitment to the country, PAMF-Madagascar worked with the Grameen Foundation to develop the first Progress Out of Poverty (PPI) scorecard for Madagascar, a tool widely used in microfinance to measure poverty outreach.
Aga Khan Foundation
AKF establishes and strengthens community-based savings groups through training, links to markets and organisational development support. It offers financial education to support fishermen and their households.