By Anca Voinea
The World Council of Credit Unions (Woccu) welcomed a sixth Ukrainian credit union to its Credit for Agriculture Producers (CAP) pilot programme.
Woccu has recently signed signing a Memorandum of Cooperation with Yednannya cherez Pryodnyi Zakon (Unity through Law of Nature), a credit union in Marhanets, Ukraine.
As part of the agreement, Woccu will support the implementation of its Model Credit Union Building (MCUB) methodology. The credit union will receive advice on a number of aspects, including business planning and management, scaling up and implementing the best techniques for lending to small and medium-sized agricultural producers, and institutional strengthening.
The pilot project includes five other Ukrainian credit unions—Zaporizhzhia, Kredyt-Soyuz, Ednist, Anisia and Vygoda.
Funded by USAID, the four-year project (2016-20) aims to strengthen the credit union sector in Ukraine to improve the quality of the financial services and products offered to farmers and agribusinesses in rural areas. To date, CAP has led to the issuance of 4,189 loans worth US$5m, disbursed through 23 partner credit unions.
“With each new credit union that adopts our Model Credit Union Building methodology, more rural farmers and agribusinesses in Ukraine will have access to loans and other financial services that will allow them to grow their operations through safe and sound financial institutions such as credit unions–which are often the sole providers of financial services in remote areas of the country. That’s the whole purpose of the CAP Project,” said CAP project chief Ewa Sierzynska.
Woccu has implemented over 300 technical assistance programmes in 89 countries.
-CoopNews