Date: 3 & 4 November 2010
Location: Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, Republic of South Africa

PlaNet Finance proudly announces its association to this international conference, the initiative of African Business Advisors, and organized by Omega Investment Research, the African-based international event manager.

This event is a unique opportunity for all financial institutions, including microfinance institutions, banks, and microfinance practitioners to explore some of the critical issues around reaching out to the Base of the Pyramid, discovering the new trends and best practices of the industry, and attracting investment in the African microfinance sector.
 

For more information contact Anne Maftei at amaftei@planetfinance.org

PlaNet Finance is delighted to support the Asia Microfinance Forum which will bring together leading microfinance practitioners, policymakers, financiers, academics and advocates as partners in achieving greater financial inclusion in Asia. The Asia Microfinance Forum is convened by The Banking With the Poor Network (BWTP) and organised by The Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC), with the Citi Foundation as Lead Sponsor, and Hatton National Bank as Local Host.

This milestone event will take place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, October 12-15 2010.

Learn more about the Forum on: www.asiamicrofinanceforum.org

To inaugurate the setting up of the FreemE project, PlaNet Finance and its partners are editing the first issue of the semi-annual Newsletter that will give information on the project and its evolution during the further months.
The FreemE project aims to support the development, the access and the long-lasting utilisation of renewable energy and the efficiency of economics energy in Morocco and Egypt, with the help of microfinance. What PlaNet Finance and its partners are proposing is to reinforce the technical abilities of the people locally invested and to encourage the microfinancial institutions to create financial products to ease their clients’ access to renewable energy. 

Bezant Chongo from PlaNet Finance Southern Africa will be a speaker at the "Mobile Money Services Africa" Conference that will be hold in Johannesburg from July 20 to 22.
www.iir-telecoms.com/event/mmsa
 

The workshop "University Meets Microfinance @ Leibniz Universität Hannover" on June 17th and 18th gathered around 80 interested students from 20 universities in Europe, microfinance practitioners and researchers. Among the speakers were experts from the GTZ, Oikocredit, Planet Rating, PlaNet Finance and CERISE, who presented Social Performance frameworks and measurement tools; William Pariente, a professor researching at the MIT Poverty Lab, who shared theory and application of Impact Measurement methodologies; and PhD- and Master students from different European universities who presented their research approaches to the subject. The workshop was organized by PlaNet Finance and the Institute for Money and International Finance of the Leibniz Universität Hannover and supported by the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Union and Ernst & Young. All workshop presentations are available at www.universitymeetsmicrofinance.eu

Begun in 2002, the partnership between PlaNet Finance & the energy company GDF Suez will be extended to 2013.
GDF SUEZ is currently involved in three of PlaNet Finance’s programs.
- Entreprendre en Banlieue: an initiative promoting microbusinesses in rundown outer areas of France’s main urban centres. Its aim is to raise awareness among local unemployed adults and to support them in exploring opportunities for setting up their own microbusinesses.
- FinanCités: provides equity finance to enable small businesses in deprived areas which have been going for at least a year to develop and grow.
- Microfinance & Energy: aimed at enabling disadvantaged groups to access
and develop renewable energy sources and to support sustainable energy use. The program was developed in China and Brazil between 2006 and 2009 and will be rolled out in Morocco and Egypt in 2010.
GDF Suez is also backing the development of a European microcredit internet platform. Known as MicroWorld, it promotes social responsibility by allowing web users to help entrepreneurs in the southern hemisphere to develop their microbusinesses by offering them financial support.