Early Warning System

Countries

Ghana

Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.

Financial Institutions

US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)

International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.

Project Status

Active

Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.

Bank Risk Rating

Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."

Borrower

Sinapi Aba Savings & Loans Ltd.

A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.

Sectors

Finance
Industry and Trade

The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.

Investment Type(s)

Guarantee

The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.

Investment Amount (USD)

$ 4.20 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Project Cost (USD)

$ 7.68 million

Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.

Bank Documents

Project Disclosure

Primary Source

Original disclosure @ DFC website

Updated in EWS Oct 16, 2025

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Project Description

If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to the Bank’s website, the project consists of a loan portfolio guaranty to support lending to 2X Eligible MSMEs, particularly those working in agriculture in northern regions of Ghana and those using alternative forms of collateral.

The Project seeks to expand debt funding through loans to women-owned/led MSMEs, including rural enterprises in northern Ghana.

Early Warning System Project Analysis

For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

According to the Public Information Summary, DFC’s loan portfolio guaranty to Sinapi Aba Savings and Loans Ltd. for lending to women led micro- small- and medium-enterprises (“MSME”) is screened as a Financial Intermediary C (FI-C) for environmental and social assessment. These downstream investments are expected to result in minimal adverse environmental and social impacts. Therefore, all those downstream investments have been pre-screened as low risk and further review and consent is not required for these investments.

Investment Description

Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC)

A Loan Portfolio Guaranty.

Financial Intermediary

A financial intermediary is a bank or financial institution that receives funds from a development bank. A financial intermediary then lends these funds to their clients (private actors) in the form of loans, bonds, guarantees and equity shares. Financial intermediaries include insurance, pension and equity funds. The direct financial relationship is between the development bank and the financial intermediary.

Sinapi Aba Savings & Loans Ltd. (Financial Intermediary)

Private Actors Description

A Private Actor is a non-governmental body or entity that is the borrower or client of a development project, which can include corporations, private equity and banks. This describes the private actors and their roles in relation to the project, when private actor information is disclosed or has been further researched.

Based in Ghana, and founded in 1994, Sinapi Aba Savings & Loans Ltd., also known as SASL, operates as a banking company that provides savings and loans to clients in the business, housing, agricultural, and education sectors. As of 2023, the company is led by its CEO, Tony Fosu Gyasi. Sinapi Aba Savings & Loans offers a wide range of services, such as group-based loans to low-income entrepreneurs, micro-based enterprise loans to entrepreneurs, automobile loans, business asset loans, salary loans for public and private institutions, agricultural loans for farmers, micro-school loans that help schools with their development needs, loans for public and household latrine, small and medium enterprise loans, non-financial services, and mobile banking services.

Contact Information

This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

No contacts available at the time of disclosure.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Unlike many other development finance institutions, DFC does not currently have an access to information policy.

Under the United States Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), DFC is obliged to respond to reasonably formulated requests for Agency records. However, DFC may apply exemptions from release to certain types of information and may charge fees in responding to requests. DFC has a designated FOIA officer who is trained in how to respond to requests and implement the law. You can learn more about filing a FOIA request at: https://www.dfc.gov/foia

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF THE UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION (DFC)

The Office of Accountability is an independent office that addresses complaints about environmental or social issues related to DFC-supported projects. The office provides communities an opportunity to have concerns independently reviewed and addressed. If you submit a complaint to the Office of Accountability, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a problem solving dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the DFC complied with its policies to prevent environmental, social, human rights, and labor harms.

You can find more information about the Office of Accountability at: https://www.dfc.gov/who-we-are/office-accountability