The financial company FPM SA, represented by its Deputy General Manager, Mr. Patrick NKONGO MAMBU, signed on Friday May 13, 2022 a financing agreement with the Agricultural Savings and Credit Cooperative of Farmers (CECAFEP), represented by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Ms. VASIMIRE TSIKO Stella and the manager, Mrs. BARAKA KYAVEREKI BLESSING. The official ceremony took place at the CECAFEP headquarters in Butembo in the province of North Kivu.
Aware of its mission to support the construction and development of an inclusive, sound and responsible financial system through the refinancing of financial institutions aimed at MSMEs and low-income people, FPM SA has granted COOPEC CECACEP financial support to finance agricultural and women farmers in their intervention areas, in the areas of Lubero and Beni.
In fact, peasant women actively contribute to economic development thanks to the maintenance of agricultural activity in an area where the climate and soil fertility offer opportunities for multiple agricultural crops. And this despite the many difficulties faced by the economic players in this province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The resilience of the CECAFEP microfinance institution deployed in areas facing various security challenges contributes, firstly, to the level of financial inclusion of women farmers in these regions, the main goals of COOPEC, and then to other members joining COOPEC want to improve.
The medium-term funding granted by FPM SA has the primary objective of contributing to the empowerment of women farmers through access to credit and training offered by CECAFEP thanks to its network of farmer organizations that are members of LOFEPACO. And then it serves to increase the portfolio of longer-term COOPEC loans needed to improve the repayment capacity of women farmers whose loan repayments remain tied to the crop cycle.
FPM SA Financial partner of microfinance institutions and Coopec
It is recalled that FPM SA is a financial company authorized by the Congo Central Bank in February 2015. It has a registered capital of USD 23.4 million and its shareholders are: KfW (German Development Bank), BIO (Belgian Investment Company for Developing Countries), Cordaid and Incofin cvso. To date, FPM SA supports 15 financial institutions in the banking and microfinance sector (IMF and Coopec) across the DRC.
As a reminder, the Savings and Agricultural Credit Cooperative of Farmers (CECAFEP), founded in 2006, is a women’s initiative bringing together 9 organizations under the name “Leagues of Congo Women Agricultural Producers Organizations (LOFEPACO)”.
Between 2002 and 2006, LOFEPACO received a credit fund from AGRITERRA to cover the financial needs of its members. This fund was then granted to applicants on the principles of solidarity and rotating credit, the repayment of which was monitored by the affiliate staff.
In addition, given the high demand for credit among members, the leaders of these organizations had decided to set up a savings and credit union. Thus, in the second half of 2006, the CECAFEP window was opened in the LOFEPACO office. Initially, it functioned as an internal service specializing in lending based on LOFEPACO’s basic structures. Then, in 2015, thanks to the support of “VETERINAIRES SANS FRONTIERE Spain”, CECAFEP obtained its accreditation from the BCC, which thus gave it legal personality and distanced it from the initiating organizations.
COOPEC’s mission is to promote the savings of women farmers and the effective use of these savings through loans. This strengthens economic power and increases production and income for farming families in the region.
