September 15, 2008

New Project Won—Iraq: Access to Credit III

ACDI/VOCA has won a U.S. State Department-funded, $3 million Access to Credit III program in Iraq, which will build upon ACDI/VOCA’s previous microfinance activities. In 2004, ACDI/VOCA founded a locally registered financial institution and began providing technical assistance under a grant from the Coalition Provisional Authority. Under a subsequent $6 million grant from the USAID Izdihar project, ACDI/VOCA continued providing technical assistance to the Iraqi microfinance institution through the first and second Access to Credit projects. This third iteration will ensure the institution’s financial sustainability—that is to have the ability to cover not only expenses but also the cost of capital, either real or imputed, and keep up with inflation— by September 2011. The institution has already become operationally self-sustainable, and thus able to cover costs through its revenue, but achieving financial sustainability is more difficult, especially in Iraq’s highly inflationary environment. The microfinance institution is a nongovernmental organization (NGO) engaged in small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lending in the northern governorates of Iraq.

For more information on ACDI/VOCA's work in Iraq, click here.