Financial Inclusion

Financial Inclusion is Norfund’s largest investment sector, with a focus on commercial banks, microfinance institutions, fintech ventures, and other financial services such as non-deposit taking lenders, insurance, and leasing. By investing in financial institutions Norfund contributes to increased financial inclusion and in particular to support jobs in micro-, small- and medium-sized companies.

Key achievements in 2023

2,282

MNOK

committed

11.5

million

new clients reached

BNOK

increase in lending to clients

Affordable and accessible financial services can enable both individuals and businesses to access necessary resources to fulfil their financial needs. This includes the ability to leverage business opportunities, investing in housing or education opportunities, and being able to navigate unexpected circumstances through the ability to build savings or take up loans.
In many of the regions where Norfund operates the financial sector is underdeveloped, resulting in limited access to fundamental financial services like bank accounts, payment methods, and lending options. It is estimated that in developing nations, around 65 million micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises face a lack of financing options. This hinders business development.

Furthermore, approximately 1.4 billion adults worldwide remain unbanked, and an even larger number are underserved by the banking sector. They often live in rural areas and are difficult to reach by offering traditional bank services. Microfinance institutions and financial technologies are imperative in reaching these underserved segments and assuring they achieve financial inclusion.

Traditional banks, microfinance institutions, and other financial service providers rely heavily on access to both debt and equity to be able to extend loans to their clients. Increasing the availability of capital enables the financial service providers to not only grow existing credit facilities, but also to develop products, increase their market reach and pay for costly yet crucial capital investments. For instance, information technology (IT) systems are costly but necessary for delivering services that are efficient, high-quality, and secure.

Norfund provides debt and equity to financially viable banks, microfinance institutions and fintech companies that wish to reach underbanked customer segments in our core countries. Our investments are made both directly and through investment platforms and funds and focus on growing locally owned financial institutions.

Our main vehicle for equity investments in African banks is Arise, a 1 billion USD bank investment company in which Norfund owns more than 40% of the shares. We also invest in Abler Nordic (formerly the Nordic Microfinance Initiative [NMI]) to reach microfinance institutions.

Strategic ambitions

Norfund has defined two strategic ambitions for the investments within Financial Inclusion for the strategy period 2023-2026. These are related to the offer of financial services to new clients and the amount of outstanding loans.

Offer financial services to 40 million new clients

Extend 280 billion NOK more in loans to clients

Investments and results in 2023

At the end of 2023 Norfund was invested directly in 74 financial institutions, accounting for 36% of our portfolio.

2,282

MNOK

committed in 2023

11,728

MNOK

committed in total FI portfolio

Investments per region

In 2023, a total of 13 commitments were signed with financial institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Investments per region in 2023

Total portfolio per region

Continued challenges due to the macro environment

The financial sector in Norfund’s core countries is strongly affected by weakening macroeconomic factors. Increased interest rates and higher sovereign risk due to high sovereign debt levels, are the main trends that posed challenges during 2023. Some countries have already defaulted (Zambia, Sri Lanka, Ghana, Ethiopia) and there is a risk of more to come. The significant holding of government securities in some banks is a particular concern. While the banks’ interest margins are strong, we see increasing repayment issues for the banks’ customers resulting in higher impairment and weaker profits in several financial institutions.

Strong portfolio performance

Despite the macro challenges, the FI portfolio delivered strong results in 2023 including 45 million USD in interest payments and 29 million USD in dividends and capital returns from our equity and fund investments. We did not experience any new non-performing loans in our debt portfolio, while equity valuations overall increased slightly. Our investments in Myanmar struggle to operate in a difficult environment and have been in need of restructuring on the debt side.

Arise

Arise is a bank investment firm with large minority stakes in a number of leading African banks. Norfund is the main shareholder with more than 40% ownership of the company. Although there are some challenges in the portfolio due to the macroeconomic situation in many countries, Arise received record dividends of 55 million USD from its investees in 2023.

The pan-African bank Ecobank is a key Arise investee, and in 2023 Arise, in cooperation with Rabobank, sponsored a large technical assistance project focusing on agri-lending across many of the Ecobank subsidiaries.

New investment highlights of 2023

new investee companies

follow-on investments

In 2023 the Financial Inclusion department entered into 13 new investment agreements for a total of 213 million USD covering 10 different countries and 3 regional companies. Amongst those was Norfund’s first investment in Ecuador, providing Tier II capital to Produbanco, one of the leading banks in the country with a strong sustainability profile.

The FI loan portfolio increased in size in 2023, with 11 new loans of a total of 188 million USD, more than covering the paybacks from the existing loans of 85 million USD.

Some key investments were:

Cornerstone investor in CIFI’s infrastructure fund

CIFI is a lender to mid-sized renewable energy and infrastructure projects across Latin America. Norfund is a 34% shareholder in CIFI’s on-balance sheet lending operations. In 2023 CIFI started its transition to become an asset manager by closing the first tranche of its new Sustainability Fund. Norfund committed 20 million USD as a cornerstone investor thereby catalyzing close to another 100 million USD in investments into the fund initially.

Another loan to LAAD, Latam’s leading agri-lender

LAAD has for the last 40 years specialized in providing USD loans to exporting farmers across Latin America. In 2023 Norfund committed 20 million USD in a senior loan to LAAD. LAAD is a long-term partner of Norfund, this being the fifth loan to LAAD.

Fintech

Access to high quality, affordable financial services is essential for social and economic development, gender equality, resilience, and livelihoods. Unfortunately, globally around 1.4 billion people are unbanked and even more are underbanked. It is also a gender issue: women are disproportionately affected: 74% of men and 68% of women in developing countries have account ownership.

On the business side small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) are also underserved by financial institutions in our markets. The use of digital technology and AI simplifies the on-boarding and credit processes thereby making it more financially attractive to take on SMEs as clients. Our mandate is to increase financial inclusion in both the personal and business segments, making fintech a natural area of interest for Norfund.

In 2023, one new direct commitment was made in this area:

Norfund committed 7.5 million USD to Funding Societies, a digital lender to SMEs in Indonesia. Funding Societies is seen as a regional leader utilizing its proprietary technology-based credit assessment process to scale its lending in a cost-effective manner. Norfund’s senior loan will support the company’s lending ability and promote growth of SMEs in some of Norfund’s core countries in Asia.

In addition, the three fintech funds in which we have ownership executed several new equity investments in fintech companies across Africa, Asia and Latin America