Access to Capital - Comoros

Access to capital

In the Comoros, access to bank credit is very limited for women entrepreneurs because of the loan conditions that they are unable to meet. To overcome this, microfinance institutions offer specific financial products for women and adopt more flexible measures in granting loans, which means that more than 50% of the clientele of these microfinance institutions is made up of women. women.

Microfinance institutions in the Union of the Comoros

Savings and Credit Mutuals ya Komor (MECK)

The MECKs are made up of a network of 14 basic funds: 9 funds in Grande Comore, 4 in Anjouan and 1 in Moheli. The share capital is held entirely by its members.

In 2018, more than 100,000 members used the services of the Meck network, which is approximately 13% of the population. Meck - Moroni members represent 43% of the total number of network members. T he Meck network is the leading financial institution in terms of granting loans. The total outstanding loans of the entire network amounted to 23.7 billion Comorian francs in 2018 . Women represent 50.8% of borrowers, up from men.

The MECK Moroni

The Mutuelle d'Epargne et de Crédit Ya komor-Moroni is a cooperative with a democratic mode of operation, whose main objectives are to work for sustainable economic development by ensuring the financial inclusion of all segments of the population, more particularly the women and young people. All members are equal with a right to vote according to the principle of 1 MEMBER = 1 VOICE. In 2018, the institution granted 12,999 loans for a total amount of 17.31 billion Comorian francs. women represent 55% of loan recipients at Meck-Moroni, which shows that the institution attaches great importance to the financing of income-generating activities for women who constitute the most vulnerable segment of the population .

Different types of loans granted by Meck Moroni

MeckMoroni has 11 credit products :

• the social loan which takes into account the constraints of the family economy and can be used in particular for housing or equipment, for the education of children or for medical care ;
• The overdraft allows employees to deal with certain emergencies and the employee loan is intended for employees in the private and public sectors who have their salaries domiciled at Meck-Moroni ;
• Productive loans for the acquisition of agricultural equipment, seeds and inputs for agricultural campaigns but also production and processing activities such as crafts, baking, etc .;
• Pawnbrokers give members the possibility of obtaining credit on the day of the request to meet urgent needs in return for deposits of gold jewellery ;
• Investment loan: Since 2014, Meck-Moroni pays particular attention to financing investment in order to support the development of commercial and productive activities of members. In addition, loan terms vary between one month and 7 years and interest rates are between 7 and 14% in accordance with the rates established by the Central Bank of the Comoros.

Table 1: List of 11 credit products