Speaking with Notes from call w Brian Milder (CEO) Tue March 15
Questions
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What is the type of technical assistance required and quantum of financial incentives that would move local banks in India?
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Next steps
Kenya is a focus country so will connect w Aceli team there as we go deeper on Kenya entry point
While Brian himself is not super versed on DeFi is has spoken about Goldfinch with Tim Rann with Mercycorps and sees the parallel; will connect us w Tim to discuss further
Conceptually, potentially an interesting role for DG to play where we are not a lender but providing TA and putting up some capital that unlocks capital from other lenders. Analogous to a "Backer" in the Goldfinch model and similar to Ethix token holders in EthicHub
Context
Brian started at Root capital, helped setup CSAF (17 social impact ag lenders incl Rabo, Triodos, Oikos, Responsability, etc).
CSAF lenders mostly LatAm focused, high value export commodities (fair trade and organic coffee). Loans are dollar based, 6-9 month duration 700k average loan size
CSAF wanted to push local banks to increase their lending to local SMEs and extend to domestic food crops.
A lot of Aceli’s effort goes in educating and motivating local lenders to be more aggressive via incentives
Donors are putting up cash for loan guarantees and subsidies and want to see the impact outcomes that result
End game is for local govts to see the value of this and provide subsidies akin to CDFIs and new market tax credits in the US
What does Aceli provide to lenders and who are the borrowers?
On a 130k loan, total subsidy is 11k; half in cash parked in reserve account for a loan loan guarantee) and half is operating subsidy
Guarantee is at the level of a lenders portfolio, not tied to individual loan. Overall bank NPA Is 2%, agri is 3.5%. Aceli puts 5% of total portfolio value in a reserve account so the bank can manage to 6-7% losses (eg, be more aggressive/inclusive in who it lends to and keep the same losses)
The operating subsidy is meant to cover transaction costs and are bonuses for lending to a new borrowers, gender inclusivity, support environmentally friendly activity
Launched in Sep 2020; 330 loans so far, targeting 480 in 2022
10% of loans are to agri-input dealers, 30% to primary production (coops and mid size farmers), 30% post-harvest handling + storage and 30% processors
Target ticket size of 25k to 1.7mn; $50k annual revenue businesses who employ 5 FTE or source from 25 smallholders
Exploring a product for off grid energy for farms.
What are the unique challenges of co-ops?
(i) member awareness and financial literacy
(ii) how to balance paying members as much as possible vs. retaining earnings to invest in sustainability of the cooperative
(iii) lack of professional mgmt
What are financing needs and good products for co-ops?
Separate seasonal working capital needs from longer-term growth capital
WC products need to allow for multiple disbursements and calculate interest on declining loan balances (not total loan size as some do)
Growth capital for investing in value add processing equipment / infrastructure are needed; long-term bullet loans are not good
Revenue based financing is good for borrower but is this attractive for lenders, esp with a coop that doesn't have a long history
What data needs to be collected for impact metrics?
Monthly reporting template that needs to be filled in by banks; they find it to be a pain but are doing it
What TA is provided to Agri SMEs?
For smaller SMEs: Africa mgmt institute runs a series of learning labs (biz and financial mgmt) + coaching for mgmt teams. 7 month program
For larger, SME chooses from a panel of TAs who do a diagnostic and agree to a 3-6 month engagement; Aceli covers 75% of the cost (SME covers remainder)
Relevance to India or Ethiopia?
CSAF members don’t work in India (except Responsability which does a bit)
Not going to Ethiopia, lots of restrictions on capital
Background info on Aceli from Dec 2021 “Learning Report”
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