User Blog

Loans on the Platform

GrowthAfrica — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 07:42:31 GMT

Dear Investors,

Thank you for ensuring that a number of loans that have been on the platform have been funded in due time.

In the last couple of months, we have witnessed immense competition from different players in the market offering financial solutions.

In order to catch up with them on the issue of timely funding, its very important that we are able to ensure that when a client applies for a loan they can receive it in the shortest time possible.

Currently we have the folwing loans on the platform , that we urge you to bid on. These are repeat clients and most of them are on their 3rd loans and have had good repayment records. We would hate to lose clients that we have worked so hard to nurture and grow , simple because we cannot make the funds available to them on due time.

We urge you to bid on them to enable them plan for this peak season.

https://www.myc4.com/Invest/Loans/View/7472 (meat Merchants

https://www.myc4.com/Invest/Loans/View/7441 (deoneusis)

https://www.myc4.com/Invest/Loans/View/7464 (Peninah muita)

https://www.myc4.com/Invest/Loans/View/7443 (Finchley)

https://www.myc4.com/Invest/Loans/View/7385 (wothiru- not a repeat loan but has alot of potential)

Best Regards
GrowthAfrica

New Rates & February Update

GrowthAfrica — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:25:57 GMT

Dear all,

The first month of the year has passed and the year has begun in earnest. During the month we managed to disburse another 12 loans, so the new portfolio now comprises of 172 active loans. The new portfolio performed well in the new month and only 3 loans are yet to get back on track - representing just 2.42% of the total portfolio.

Overall the total portfolio also improved, and today the Portfolio-at-Risk stands at 13.70% which is an improvement of 2.90%-points since early January.

New Rates - Provider Closing Fees Scrapped
In line with our earlier communication we have reviewed our fees and have decided to remove the Provider closing fees. We will however still charge an Administrator closing fee, though this has been significantly reduced from 5.0-7.5% to 2.5%-5.0%. On the Provider side we will now only be earning interest fee of 8.0-15.0% p.a., which should help reassure the investors about our motivation.

Looking at the Provider and Administrator fees as one, this means the total earnings now has shifted from roughly 50-50 to 30-70 in favour of fees made on repayment, i.e. 30% of our income is made on closing, 70% is made during repayment. We remain committed to skewing this further in favour of repayment - as well as co-investing - as soon as our cash-flow will allow this. The next 6 months focus will however be on building a larger team capable of delivering more quality loans to the MyC4 platform.

The new products now include:
- KidogoGrowth (approx. EUR 1-3,000)
- NdogoGrowth (approx. EUR 3-7,500)
- KatiGrowth (approx. EUR 7,500-20,000)
- KubwaGrowth (over EUR 20,000)

Besides this we will have NfupiGrowth for shortterm, microloans (less than EUR 1,000) and KunjaGrowth, which will offer repeat borrowers the option of one month's repayment holiday during the course of the loan repayment (this will appear as one month grace period).

We are confident that these new products will appeal to the market and attract quality borrowers, and investors committed to generating growth in small businesses in Africa.

We look forward to your continued investments and dialogue.

Best regards,

Monthly Progress Update

GrowthAfrica — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 07:40:41 GMT

Dear Investors & MyC4 Community,

Happy New Year... We hope you have all entered the decade in style, good health and full of vigour!

After a week's rest for most of us, we certainly feel full of vigour, and ready to take on the challenges of 2010.

During the last month of 2009 we have managed to disburse another 34 loans, bringing the total loans in the New Portfolio to 160 loans. As anticipated some of our clients did have difficulties during the holiday period (keeping in mind we have not yet had a chance to get in touch with all our clients in the New Year, which work-wise is only a few hours old!), and 8 loans have delayed in their payments totalling 5.77% of the total portfolio.

The old portfolio improved at a fair pace as well, and another 45 loans cleared their balance during the past month - unfortunately 13 loans went into "default". This leaves us with an old portfolio with just 81 loans.

Overall the portfolio target for 2009 was met, and indeed exceeded, as our total Portfolio-at-Risk stood at 16.60% at commencement of work 2010.

2010 thus starts on a good note - BUT, we are fully aware of the "defaulted" loans and have stepped up efforts in this regard (as mentioned earlier), and we expect this to bear fruit in the months to come.

During the early months of 2010 we should also be able to see an increase in our capacity to offer more quality loans. We have hired 8 new employees, who will commence their employment in the next weeks and months.

Thus, we are excited about 2010, and full of optimism - and confident the learning from the past 18 months of challenges will be put to good use.

We look forward to working with you all during the year, and look forward to a more profitable 2010 - for all: you, MyC4, ourselves and, most importantly, our borrowers.

Kind regards,
Johnni Kjelsgaard

GrowthAfrica: Monthly Progress Update (November)

GrowthAfrica — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:37:51 GMT

Dear Investors & MyC4 Community,

Another month has passed and the year is very quickly coming to an end.

During the month of November we have managed to disburse another 21 loans, bringing the total loans in the New Portfolio to 126 loans. We have had the first 2 instances of late/less than expected repayments, but the Portfolio-at-Risk (PAR) is a respectable 2.67%. Both loans are under control and we do not expect that they will cause any significant issue looking forward.

However December and January are traditionally very hard months for micro and small businesses as the entrepreneurs are having a hard time balancing their company, celebrating Christmas and New Year with their families and still have enough money for the commencement of the new year, which is associated with a lot of expenses, especially for families with school-going children.

The old portfolio is improving at a very nice pace as well, and another 90 loans cleared their balance during the past month, which leaves the old portfolio with just 139 loans.

Overall our portfolio continues to improve faster than expected, and the PAR now stands at 20.99% - and though we are expecting challenges in December and January, we still hope to achieve our ambition to bring the total PAR closer to 20% before year end.

We thank you all again for your encouragement and support!

Kind regards,
Johnni Kjelsgaard

GrowthAfrica: Monthly Progress Update

GrowthAfrica — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 12:34:48 GMT

Dear Investors & MyC4 Community,

As stated last month, we would at the beginning of each month give a short progress update.

During the month of October we have managed to disburse another 40 loans, bringing the total loans in the New Portfolio to 105 loans, all of which are on track with their payments, i.e. Portfolio-at-Risk (PAR) is 0.00%.

Unfortunately another 39 loans have slid into technical default, and although this was by-and-large the expected number, we still feel the recovery efforts for the Old "toxic" Portfolio could remain better. For this reason, among others, we have hired a Legal Officer with a lot of experience in loan and collateral recovery as well as prosecution of bad debtors. We hope this will speed up the recovery efforts and eventually bring actual defaults below the EUR 100,000 treshold.

On the other hand another 87 loans manage to clear during October, and the Old Portfolio now remains with 229 loans, most of which we expect to clear before end of year.

Overall our portfolio has improved faster than expected, and the PAR now stands at 28.69% - which is better than our initial year-end ambition. This does not mean we will rest on the laurels; our new ambition is to bring the total PAR as close to 20% before year end.

We thank you all again for your encouragement and support!

Kind regards,
Johnni Kjelsgaard

Investments - comments & questions

GrowthAfrica — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:44:46 GMT

Dear Investors,

This thread is for you, the Investors, to draw our attention to loans which lack sufficient information. Please include the link in any inquiry!

Also be aware that some sensitive information we have chosen not to share on the platform as long as it is public and individuals and organisations we do not wish to share this information with have unrestricted access to the platform (this pertains to information that would assist other creditors in locating or structuring their efforts towards the borrower and thus undermining our recovery efforts).

You are as always also welcome to emailing Patricia or myself directly on pju@growthafrica.com and jkj@growthafrica.com respectively.

Thanks - and happy blogging,
Johnni

Quarterly Progress Update

GrowthAfrica — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:29:39 GMT

Dear Investors & MyC4 Users

Another 3 months have passed since our last general update, and the work at GrowthAfrica has continued and the result of the hard work is slowly beginning to show.

During the months of July, August and September we have managed to clear over 200 loans, and reduced the number of loans that are behind with their payments to just over 200. Unfortunately another 80 loans fell further behind during this period (pretty much, as expected) and have technically defaulted on the MyC4 platform. But as mentioned several times, we continue our recovery efforts and expect to recover 60-75% of the current balance of defaulted loans by 1^st/2^nd quarter 2010.

In the past 3 months we have started issuing new loans in earnest, and we have issued just under 70 loans worth EUR 160,000 in this period. We are happy to say that the New Portfolio has a portfolio-at-risk (PAR) of 0.00% - all loans have paid according to plan.

The overall PAR – for the Old “toxic” Portfolio and the New Portfolio – has also seen a great improvement from 66% to 44%. We expect this to drop further and be under 30% by end year.

We have also continued the internal strengthening of GrowthAfrica, and are currently work on updating and refining our key strategies and plans for the future, in order to be ready for further growth in 2010. We will be happy to share these plans with you all as soon as they have been completed, which is expected to happen in January.

We will be making brief monthly updates from now on in terms of the loan recovery efforts as well as the performance of the New Portfolio versus the Old “toxic” Portfolio.

Thanks to the Investors and MyC4 for the support and encouragement,
Johnni Kjelsgaard

GrowthAfrica continues recovery process

GrowthAfrica — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:05:22 GMT

Dear Investors & MyC4 Users,

We are halfway through the year, and at GrowthAfrica we are continuing the loan recovery process at a decent rate – in fact we have managed to recover half of the arrears, and have reduced the average outstanding arrears per borrower by almost 50% as well – at the beginning of the year the average arrears per borrower in arrears was just over EUR 1,200 – today it is less than EUR 750.

We expect that the process will take another 6-9 months, and in the interim no substantial improvements in our performance metrics should be expected (PAR and Default Risk), but you should see amounts trickling into your accounts. Even the loans that will be technically defaulted on the platform will still be collected on – amounts can for technical reasons not be submitted to your accounts till August/September, when the next upgrade of the MyC4 system happens – but we will to the furthest possible extend blog on this. As the MyC4 system renders a loan defaulted when it is 187+ days late, a substantial number will become technically default; but the internal status at GrowthAfrica Capital will not change and collections will continue as mentioned.

The identification of new borrowers will also be increased under our new, more stringent and comprehensive procedures. Focus will be on providing loans to the borrowers who already completed the repayment of a loan without any problems. For new borrowers loan amounts will be smaller, repayment capacity assessment more conservative, and repayment periods shorter (12 months or less).

We intend to continue providing the cheapest loans on the MyC4 platform, and charge the borrowers the lowest fees to remain competitive and attract more capable borrowers.

We appreciate and value your continued support and investments!

Kind regards,
Johnni Kjelsgaard

GrowthAfrica back on the platform

GrowthAfrica — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:38:03 GMT

Dear Investors & MyC4 users,

Slightly later than initially anticipated, we are now commencing with new loans on the MyC4 platform. The delay was primarily a result of us wanting to ensure all elements of our operation was optimised towards ensuring low-risk investment opportunities. We also needed to complete and consolidate the capacity building that has been taking place at GrowthAfrica since early March.

The new uploads coincide with a significant milestone in our collection efforts, as we have now surpassed 50% point of collecting the disbursed loans. Our Portfolio at Risk as a percentage remains high as a lot of our initial clients are still behind their initial repayment schedule - most clients are repaying, but at a much slower pace than initially thought.

We are happy to share with all investors our revised procedures and policies. Please feel free to request these from me at jkj@growthafrica.com, or our Managing Director, Patricia Jumi at pju@growthafrica.com.

Your investments are appreciated!

Kind regards,
Johnni Kjelsgaard

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Most of the new loans are clients who have completed their initial loan without problems:
https://www.myc4.com/Portal/WebForms/MyAccount/Opportunities/ViewOpportunity.aspx?OpportunityId=5466
https://www.myc4.com/Portal/WebForms/MyAccount/Opportunities/ViewOpportunity.aspx?OpportunityId=5467
https://www.myc4.com/Portal/WebForms/MyAccount/Opportunities/ViewOpportunity.aspx?OpportunityId=5483
https://www.myc4.com/Portal/WebForms/MyAccount/Opportunities/ViewOpportunity.aspx?OpportunityId=5484
https://www.myc4.com/Portal/WebForms/MyAccount/Opportunities/ViewOpportunity.aspx?OpportunityId=5485
https://www.myc4.com/Portal/WebForms/MyAccount/Opportunities/ViewOpportunity.aspx?OpportunityId=5486

Revamping GrowthAfrica Capital

GrowthAfrica — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 06:31:42 GMT

Dear Investors & MyC4 Community,

It has not escaped the vigilant MyC4 user that GrowthAfrica Capital (GAC) has been facing some interesting challenges the past 3 months, with an ever increasing portfolio-at-risk (PAR).

As detailed in earlier communication, the reasons are many and various – largely a combination of circumstance, bad policy and poor implementation. In other words, we at GAC feel we share in the responsibility of a poorly performing portfolio; and thus have decided to take action accordingly.

GAC has engaged a new Managing Director and a new team of experienced loan officers and invested heavily in an improved infrastructure as well as training and technical assistance from very seasoned MFI consultants. The new GAC team has analysed the current portfolio and found that 330 clients are performing poorly, hereof 65 very poorly and in parts due to poor evaluation by the previous GAC team.

To assume responsibility hereof GAC will before mid April pay 95% of these 65 loans’ balances to the respective investors, and assume in full the responsibility of these loans and their eventual repayment. Our immediate evaluation is that of these 65 loans, most will default and with large amounts – getting 95% of your outstanding balance here and now is thus a very attractive deal. We naturally hope you will invest, at least some of this, in the new and highly improved GAC loan portfolio.

Another 50-75 of the poorly performing loans are on our “observation list” and if these continue to perform poorly, GAC will also buy out these at 95% of the balance by mid June. In all this exercise will see GAC buy off loans worth over EUR 125,000.

Looking forward, we have great confidence in our new Managing Director and her new team. With the training and consulting being received currently, we are convinced that the new loan portfolio will perform significantly better than the current portfolio; and that GAC will become one of the premier partners of MyC4 in extending affordable and flexible access to capital for deserving entrepreneurs and businesses in Africa.

We naturally entertain specific and general questions and comments, either on the blog, or directly on email:
jkj@growthafrica.com – Johnni Kjelsgaard, Chairman & Founder
pju@growthafrica.com – Patricia Jumi, Managing Director

We look forward to your continued support and investments – kind regards,
Johnni Kjelsgaard