Diaries
Notes on credit guarantees, small-business finance, financial inclusion and climate finance, drawn from more than 30 years of practice in emerging markets.
Tarek Kamal, PMP, MBA
Managing Director, KDF
Financial Inclusion
After more than 30 years in finance, I’ve seen too many viable businesses fail simply because they couldn’t pledge a building as security. The paradox of MSME finance continues to frustrate me. We have more financial tools than ever before to reduce dependence on traditional…
Financial Risk Mitigation
Even as excessive levels of competition erode interest rate spreads, financial institutions continue to flock to what they consider safe space, namely loans to…
Financial Risk Mitigation
When an MSME reaches out to financial institutions for a loan to grow their business, the financial institution only finances a part of the…
Climate Finance
I was recently thinking about the opportunity I had taken up to participate in a walk-through energy audit of an eco-resort in Nepal almost…
MSME Finance
When MSMEs are asked what they think of interest rates, it is not surprising that they find it too high. When asked whether they…
Financial Risk Mitigation
Not many people, not even many bankers, have heard the term hardcore overdraft, but it is a thing. The purpose of an overdraft account…
MSME Finance
In Bangladesh, the sixth-largest country in terms of population, more than 63 million people live below the poverty line. A third of its 162.9…
Financial Risk Mitigation
Mobile Financial Services (MFS) is fairly active in Bangladesh but the cost of transactions and the level of literacy of the ultimate beneficiaries, namely…
Climate Finance
This is a follow up to a previous note, The Chors (River Islands) of Bangladesh: A Real Challenge for the Financial Services Sector. The…
Climate Finance
To say that life is difficult for the residents of the Chors (River Islands) of Bangladesh would be an understatement of the highest magnitude.…
Human Resources Development
When I was in business school studying venture capital management, my entrepreneurship professor, said that before going into business, I should get some experience…
Human Resources Development
There is an inherent tendency to push back whenever capacity building (aka training or skills development) is proposed as a solution to the age…
