The World Council of Credit Unions in Madison, Wis., has been awarded funding from a federal agency to help increase lending to small and medium enterprises globally, reports Michael Bartlett of Credit Union Journal.
The five-year, $7.7 million program, which runs until August 2023, will deploy WOCCU’s lending toolkit and help build a platform for its cooperative partners to learn about innovations in SME lending, the group said on Wednesday.
The U.S. Agency for International Development for the Cooperative Development Program – Technology and Innovation for Financial Inclusion provided the money. The Confederation of Financial Institutions of West Africa in Burkina Faso; the National Federation of Savings and Credit Cooperatives in Guatemala and the Kenya Union of Savings and Credit Co-operatives are three regional partners for the program.
