Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa S.A., SICAV-SIF (REGMIFA) / Investment & Innovation inMicrofinance: Africa by Hanson Wade

At the G8 summit of 2007 in Heiligendamm, the G8 endorsed the idea to establish an investment fund for the promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the Sub-Saharan region. KfW, supported by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), has taken the lead in progressing the further development of this initiative in close collaboration with a group of 11 other development finance institutions. The Regional MSME Investment Fund for Sub-Saharan Africa S.A., SICAV-SIF (REGMIFA) was launched on 5 May 2010.

The mission of REGMIFA is to build a unique public private partnership (PPP) between donors, development finance institutions and international finance institutions, private investors and African stakeholders to foster economic development and prosperity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through the provision of demand-oriented financing to qualified and, to the extent necessary, technically supported Partner Lending Institutions (PLIs) serving micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs).

REGMIFA's strategic goal is to foster economic development and prosperity as well as employment creation, income generation and poverty alleviation in its target region by supporting micro-entrepreneurs and small or medium sized businesses via Partner Lending Institutions. The Fund is founded on the principles of the Paris Declaration; it seeks to increase donor effectiveness by pooling resources, harmonizing standards in REGMIFA's investment and technical assistance support activities.

REGMIFA also offers technical assistance support to those institutions who have already received financial support from the Fund.

REGMIFA targets regulated and/or non-regulated microfinance institutions, local commercial banks and/or other financial institutions providing financial services to micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). REGMIFA's offers senior unsecured debt in local currency as well as hard currency and helps address maturity mismatches faced by institutions by offering medium to long-term maturities.