Fido Solutions Limited (FMO-63854)

Countries
  • Ghana
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Financial Institutions
  • Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
C
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."
Voting Date
Aug 1, 2024
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
FIDO Solutions
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Finance
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Equity
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 10.00 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.
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ FMO website

Updated in EWS Sep 11, 2024

Disclosed by Bank Jul 10, 2024

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Contact the EWS Team

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, FMO invested USD 10 million in direct equity (from MASSIF) in FIDO's Series B capital raise. The funding objective is to support FIDO's loan book growth in Ghana and Uganda and to further expand into new African countries, while maintaining their goal of supporting bottom-of-pyramid (BoP) clients.

FIDO provides access to finance to the BoP, which is in alignment with FMO's commitment on reducing inequalities. Its client base mostly consists of young, BoP informal business owners who, in almost all instances, have never had access to finance due to a lack of formal financial track record.

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.

E&S risk is deemed limited (risk classification C), with the potential environmental and social impact from operations being minimal. FIDO's operations are not exposed to high-risk sectors and no IFC Performance Standards are triggered due to the small ticket sizes of the loans. As such, the operations have minimal or no adverse environmental or social impact.

In the case of microfinance investments, the E&S classification is typically low because the exposure generally is limited to retail and micro-entrepreneurs. The risks that might come with microfinance investments, such as, among others, over-indebtedness, transparency of interest rates, and responsible pricing, are covered by FMO in other assessments such as the Client Protection Principles (CPPs).

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

USD 10 million in direct equity (from MASSIF) in FIDO's Series B capital raise.

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.
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.

FIDO Solutions (FIDO) is a digital lender operating in Ghana and Uganda. The company empowers individuals and small businesses across Africa by providing small tickets, short term credit and other financial products. By leveraging technology, FIDO utilizes alternative data and artificial intelligence (AI) to underwrite more than 650,000 customers, granting them instant access to credit without a formal financial track record based on a credit score calculated by FIDO.


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.

Website customer/investment: https://gh.fido.money/

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

As part of FMO's ex-ante disclosure (disclosure of transactions before contracting), you can send requests or questions for additional information to: disclosure@fmo.nl

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF FMO

Communities who believe they will be negatively affected by a project funded by the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) may be able to file a complaint with the Independent Complaints Mechanism, which is the joint independent accountability mechanism of the Dutch Development Bank (FMO) and the German Investment Corporation (KfW). A complaint can be filed in writing, by email, post, or online. The complaint can be filed in English or any other language of the complainant. The Independent Complaints Mechanism is comprised of a three-member Independent Expert Panel and it can provide either problem-solving, compliance review or both, in either order. Additional information about this accountability mechanism, including a guide and template for filing a complaint, can be found at: https://www.fmo.nl/independent-complaints-mechanism

How it works

How it works