Microfinance Focus, February 2, 2012: International Finance Corporation (IFC) may lend a local currency loan of up to 10 million Tunisian dinar ($7 million) of up to 5 years to support microfinance activities of ENDA Inter-Arabe, a private microfinance institution in Tunisia.

Together with the loan, IFC is working on an Advisory Services package with ENDA, focusing on risk management and institution building.

ENDA is an international and foreign NGO member of the ENDA Tiers-Monde network which is present in more than 20 countries and based in Dakar, Senegal. Established in 1989, ENDA started to provide microcredit to the poor in Tunisia in 1995.

It now has an established network of 65 branches throughout the northern, southern and central parts of Tunisia. It has more than 190,000 clients, of which 70% are women as of November 2011. ENDA is a founder member of Sanabel, the network of microfinance in the Arab countries.

IFC’s loan will assist ENDA in increasing the outreach of its lending operations. With an existing average loan size of US$600 and an average maturity of eleven months, this project would enable ENDA to provide over 45,000 such loans during the tenor of the credit line expected to be up to five years.