The international financial institution, GroFin, is offering loans to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SME) in Tanzania.
GroFin is a, “private equity and venture capital firm specializing debt, equity, and mezzanine [capital],” headquartered in Black River, Mauritius with many offices in African and Middle Eastern countries.
GroFin invests in all stages of SME business development including, start up, product-line creation, franchising, and expansion.
Over 400 Tanzanian companies in a variety of sectors have received loans from GrowFit, averaging between USD 50 thousand to 1.5 million.
General Manager, Emmanuel Elisante, has stated that unlike traditional loan institutions that require 100% collateral, GroFit believes that a good business plan is a more important sign of commitment from potential loan recipients.
He further said that GroFit has developed a successful, “fund management ability and viability based investment model [that enables them] to identify, mitigate and manage the risks associated with investing in the SME sector, and [to] deliver targeted financial and development returns for the fund investor partners.”