ME&A Provides DCA Credit Guarantee Technical and Institutional Support for USAID in 25 Countries
ME&A provided the Development Credit Authority (DCA) technical and institutional support ranging from risk assessments and pricing of guarantees to other activities designed to reduce risk, fraud, and corruption in 25 countries across Africa and Asia. From 2016 through most of 2019, an ME&A team of economic, financial, and legal specialists worked with USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment to provide financial and economic technical assistance under the recently completed Institutional Support for DCA Credit Guarantee Programs task order.
USAID implements DCA guarantees in select developing markets using risk-sharing agreements to mobilize local private capital to fill financing gaps that otherwise can prevent small businesses from accessing the credit they need to expand operations and create jobs. Highlights of ME&A’s technical and institutional support include:
- Completed compliance visits with more than 20 DCA partner organizations (financial institutions, technical assistance providers, and borrowers) in Benin, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan
- Analyzed the financial reporting of 154 financial institutions under the DCA portfolio
- Conducted a market assessment, including risk mitigation strategies, for the Kenyan Pooled Water Facility, which would serve as a guarantee for municipal water utilities in Kenya
- Conducted compliance reviews of reporting and fee payment histories for 45 guarantees under DCA’s West Africa portfolio
- Led project development activities with potential international lending organizations in the European Union and the United States
- Supported USAID Power Africa’s engagement with the Israeli government and companies around investing in the African power sector and collaborating on DCA guarantees in support of the energy sector
- Conducted an analysis of existing leasing products, market opportunities for portfolio expansion, and market opportunities as well as training to increase leasing to women in Cambodia
- Led the onboarding process for 32 DCA guarantee partners, including 12 new guarantee partners, in Burma, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan
- Conducted a market assessment and led the due diligence and structuring process for a new bond issuance with FINCA Tanzania
- Conducted monitoring and compliance visits for three guarantee partners in Tajikistan
- Provided recommendations on how to modernize and harmonize Cambodia’s secured transactions regime to incorporate international best practices
- Designed the DCA Fiscal Year 2016 Impact Brief, a document that reported on and increased awareness of DCA’s role as a guarantor for private capital investments in the developing world
USAID awarded ME&A the Institutional Support for DCA Credit Guarantee Programs task order in September 2016 under the GSA Federal Supply Schedule 874 PSS/MOBIS Contract providing a full range of professional business services and related support products for consulting, facilitation, training, and program and project management. Under the task order, ME&A provided technical assistance and institutional support to USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment to identify, design, and prepare DCA guarantees.