Do MFIs measure their social impact in Nepal ?

You often hear Nepali MFIS blowing horns of their success by indicating their customer base growth rate
MFIs needs to go beyond tracking -  Number of Customers reach to measure their social impact... Here is an excellent case study on social impact measuring metrics of MFIs............................Click here to read 

News: IFC's Chief investment officer, private equity funds on Nepali private sector

"IFC works in countries all over the world with all sorts of political situation. This is not new to us. What is important is that small businesses thrive regardless of what´s going around them. The politics and the government do not matter much to them because they are focused on their own businesses. And on top of that they need money to grow. So investments in SMEs are really good investment."

Click here to read more 

News: सहकारीद्वारा ६ अर्ब ठगी

This news to me sounds like a fusion between United states sum prime crisis and India's micro finance crisis..  

Top Challenges of Nepali Micro finance industry -2013

• Saturating customer base
• Mission Drift 
• Customers multiple financing and over leverage
• Profiteering mindset of MFIs
• Lack of  appropriate tools to measure social impact of access to finance 
• Unhygienic corporate governance standard 
• Lack of know-how to leverage technology to increase penetration and reduce cost of transaction     

NEWS : First Venture Fund for Nepali SME Launched......

"Business Oxygen (BO2) is a USD 14 Million Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Ventures Fund, initiated by International Finance Corporation (IFC) and managed by a joint venture between beed and Bank of Kathmandu (BOK). The Fund will invest in SMEs in Nepal and open up, for the first time, access to finance outside the traditional realms of providing collateralized loansBusiness." Click here to learn more

proposal: Nepal- ACCESS TO CLEAN ENERGY THROUGH MICROFINANCE

"The UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and  the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) are launching a Request for Expressions of Interest (EoI) for the Access to Clean Energy
for the Poor through Microfinance (CleanStart) programme in Nepal. The EoI is open to eligible
financial service providers (FSPs) who have retail or wholesale  operations in Nepal.  The
programme will award grants and technical assistance  to leading FSPs to create new financing
models and expand their retail  or wholesale operations  in the  clean  energy  markets in
particular to provide microfinance for clean energy  solutions  to low-income households and
micro-entrepreneurs in areas which are underserviced at the moment.  CleanStart will operate
over a period of four years (2012-2015) in Nepal, and provide business development support to
up to three qualified financial institutions" Click here to read more

Government investing in Co-operatives run by marginalized groups

DoC plans co-op subsidy guidelines | National | Business | ekantipur.com

Government decided to provided seed money to run co-operative run by the low-income and disadvantage population. Can this we considered impact investing ?

"The programme has targeted the poor from underprivileged communities like Haliya, Kamaiya, Dom and Musahar. It has also targeted promotiung cooperatives operated by low-income people like rickshaw pullers and single women."


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Related news from India - "  A venture capital fund, dedicated to promoting Dalit entrepreneurs, has been registered by market regulator Sebi, paving the way for creation of a corpus to support businesses owned by people from the Scheduled Castes." click here to read more 

IFC to invest in Probiotech - Detail News : Nepal News Portal

The Himalayan Times : IFC for equity investment in Probiotech - Detail News : Nepal News Portal

"After the agreement, the due diligence of Probiotech will finalise the equity per cent and capital the IFC will pump in, the sources claimed, adding that IFC might pump in around $200,000 but it will be finalised only after due diligence that will start from mid-January, if everything goes as planned. According to International Finance Corporation norms, it cannot invest more than 25 per cent equity in a company."


Similar kind of private equity deal took place in India couple of weeks ago....  Temasek  holding bought 20% of the share in Godrej Agrovet, a diversified agri-business company,that has interests in animal feed, oil palm plantations, agri-inputs and poultry. 

Click here to read more 

Nepali students leveraging mobile technology to learn English

" सहरका विद्यालयले मोबाइल फोनमा प्रतिबन्ध लगाइरहँदा दैलेखका ग्रामीण विद्यालयमा त्यही मोबाइल भरपर्दो शैक्षिक सामग्री बनेको छ । पठनपाठनलाई प्रभावकारी बनाउन यहाँका अधिकांश विद्यालयले मोबाइल प्रयोग गर्छन् । केही विद्यालयले सुरु गरेको यो अभियानले सकारात्मक परिवर्तन देखाएपछि अन्य विद्यालयले पनि जेठदेखि मोबाइललाई शैक्षिक औजारका रूपमा प्रयोग गरिरहेका छन् । मोबाइल प्रयोगको ६ महिनामै विद्यार्धीको नतिजामा सुधार देखिएको छ ।
दैलेखका ५ सय १३ प्राथमिक विद्यालयका ५ सय २५ अंग्रेजी शिक्षकलाई मोबाइल फोन भरपर्दो पाठ्यसामग्री बनेको छ । कक्षा १ देखि ५ सम्मका अंग्रेजी विषयको पाठ्यवस्तु सबै अडियो (श्रव्य)मा राखिएकाले मोबाइलबाटै सुनाएर पढाइन्छ ।"

Click here to read more 

Nepal Insurance Board introduced micro-insurance products

• Non life insurance companies will offer insurance products for paddy, vegetables,potato,poultry, fruits and livestock 
• " Crops insurance will cover production cost involved in farming of all crops and horticulture until the time they are ready for harvest. This includes cost involved in purchase of seedlings and fertilizers, and labor charge, among others. However, insurance coverage will not be provided in case plantations are done on less than eight aanas (2,738 sq ft) of land in hilly region and one kattha (3,645 sq ft) of land in the Terai"
• "On the other hand, livestock and poultry insurance will provide coverage to all types of cows, oxen, buffalos, yak, female yak, sheep, goat, swine, chicken and ducks based on sum insured fixed by the Insurance Board.
  
  For instance, maximum sum insured for high-breed dairy cow and buffalo are Rs 150,000 and Rs 125,000, respectively. This means those who have purchased cow and buffalo insurance policies cannot claim for more than Rs 150,000 and Rs 125,000, respectively. Similarly, sum insured for water buffalo and ox raised for reproductive purpose has been fixed at Rs 70,000, while insurance coverage for water buffalos and oxen used for transportation purpose has been fixed Rs 40,000.
  
  Likewise, sum insured for sheep and goat raised for meat production cannot exceed Rs 8,000, while maximum insurance coverage for different types of chicken and duck have been fixed at Rs 1,200 and Rs 700, respectively."

Source: Republica*

Investment Nepali Healthcare

Over the recent years increasing number of  private hospitals have cropped up around the country ... Even though the number of hospital beds have increased over the years, access to affordable healthcare still remain  a challenge..... Economist Kancha sees   tremendous opportunities to invest in heath care sector- particularly in single specialty chain and diagnostic laboratories. 

 Why Potential Investors should look into investing  in -----Single Specialty Afforable Chains of Dailysis centers 

• one in every 10 Nepali people suffers from kidney problem and around 27,000 patients need renal transplants
•  There are only 140 dialysis machines in 25 hospitals and private clinics across the country, which are able to provide the service to only around 1,000 kidney patients.

Click here to see  interesting healthcare  business models

1.  Private equity pours money into India healthcare.
2. Frugal innovation: Devi Shetty's Narayana Hrudayalaya to conduct heart surgeries at world's cheapest rates