RIYADH: Mauritanian Minister for Economy and Finance Al-Mukhtar Wald Ajai opened the Arab Gulf Program for Development’s (AGFUND) ninth microfinance bank in Nouakshott, capital of Mauritania last week.
The launch was attended by Yosuf bin Ibrahim Al-Bassam, representative of AGFUND’s President Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz and deputy president, and top Mauritanian officials and businessmen.
"The Ebdaa bank in Nouakchott is one of the initiatives of the AGFUND in different countries to help disadvantaged people to be involved in productive activities and make decent life. Over 1,500 of very low income and disadvantaged community members have benefited from the bank chain of branches in financing their projects in the countries have these branches," he said in his address at the opening ceremony.
The new bank will be the ninth of AGFUND chain Ebdaa banks in the world after Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Three more banks in Morocco, Tunisia, and Philippines are in the pipeline, according to Nasir Bakr Al-Qahtani, executive director of AGFUND.
"The launch of this new bank in Nouakchott comes as part of AGFUND President Prince Talal bin Abdulaziz's sincere and generous efforts to establish specialized banks to achieve financial inclusion for poor and combat poverty in the world," he said.
"AGFUND contributes to fulfill the goals of the communities in which these banks serve to materialize the strategic goals of AGFUND to fight poverty, and improve services in health and education sectors in the developing communities,” he added.
The initiative of creating these banks for the poor was adopted 1997 by Prince Talal when he valued the thoughts and ideas of Professor Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and leader of microfinance around the globe.
AGFUND, a regional organization based in Riyadh, was established in 1980 upon the initiative of Prince Talal with the support of leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
The program mainly works in the field of development and growth at the international level through an effective partnership with the United Nations Organization, with regional and national development organizations, with public institutions, with the private sector, as well as with organizations of the civil society.
AGFUND opens new Ebdaa bank for microfinance in Mauritania
