ACFIME, Burkina Faso
Our microfinance partner in Burkina Faso
Credit within reach. A future in her hands.
Perhaps you have wondered whether a small loan can really change a life. In Burkina Faso it happens every week. ACFIME lends to women and small business owners in towns and villages, and walks with them until the business stands on its own.
Proof that opportunity works
Small loans. Faithfully repaid.
ACFIME, the Community Agency for Micro-Enterprise Finance, grew out of CREDO’s microfinance program and became its own institution on June 1, 2007. Its motto: “Credit within your reach, savings for your future.”
Kiva-verified figures for ACFIME since 2014. They are only one part of ACFIME’s wider lending. Source: Kiva
Why ACFIME
More than a loan. A way forward.
Women first
- Solidarity groups of five to ten women who stand behind one another.
- Training in managing credit before the first loan, and coaching after it.
Farmers too
- Agricultural loans for crops such as cashews, maize and cassava.
- Farmer training and a buyer for the harvest, so the loan becomes income.
Savings for the future
- Savings plans for school fees, projects and emergencies.
- Financial education that stays with a family for life.
Branches and service points in Ouagadougou, Bobo-Dioulasso, Léo, Orodara and Banfora.
How we work together
One program. Two partners. Shared purpose.
Our roots run deep. ACFIME and CREDO grew out of the same home church in Burkina Faso as our CEO, Daniel Zopoula, who still walks with ACFIME as a leader, coach and partner. Today ACFIME is a trusted implementing partner of Bridges of Hope. Hope Enterprises, the Bridges of Hope economic development program, is carried out in Burkina Faso with ACFIME under a written agreement. Kiva, too, partners with ACFIME, so every loan joins a larger movement.
Bridges of Hope
Direction and accountability
- Sets the program’s purpose, budget and results
- Raises and receipts gifts in Canada, with US giving through Bridges of Hope USA
- Reviews reports and tells donors the story
ACFIME
Expertise on the ground
- Selects borrowers and forms solidarity groups
- Provides the loans, savings, training and follow-up
- Reports on loans, repayments and results
A network to the same end
We are not doing this alone.
ACFIME is more than one partnership. Bridges of Hope, Kiva and respected lenders and development agencies all work with ACFIME toward one goal: families who earn, save and thrive on their own.
Our roots in Burkina Faso
Rooted together. Trusted to deliver.
Some partnerships are signed. Ours was grown. CREDO, ACFIME and the leader of Bridges of Hope come from the same home church in Burkina Faso. Decades later, that shared root has become a network that reaches hundreds of thousands of people.
CREDO is born
Dr. Moïse Napon founds CREDO to serve children and families across Burkina Faso.
ACFIME is born
CREDO’s microfinance work becomes its own institution, putting credit within reach.
A son goes further
Daniel Zopoula serves with CREDO, mentored by Dr. Napon, then carries the vision to Canada.
A bridge is built
Bridges of Hope joins donors in Canada and the USA to programs in 21 countries.
14,000+ and growing
Entrepreneurs funded, children in school, families moving beyond charity.
Give
to a Bridges of Hope program you choose.
Directs
purpose, budget, results and accountability.
Deliver
CREDO and ACFIME carry out the work under written agreements.
Flourish
and move from beneficiary to benefactor.
“These are not partners we found. They are partners we were formed with.”Daniel Zopoula, CEO, Bridges of Hope
Daniel continues to walk with CREDO and ACFIME as a leader, coach and partner. Gifts are made to Bridges of Hope for its own programs.
Imagine a different future
Beyond charity. Beyond poverty.
Charity as usual keeps people waiting for the next gift, and dependency grows quietly, one handout at a time. We believe in a different ending: the day a mother no longer needs help, because she has become the one who gives it.
becomes a benefactor
The girl who once received a school uniform grows up to pay a teacher’s wage. The family that once received food now feeds its neighbours.
can care for themselves
Skills, health and education let a mother and father provide for their own children, with their heads held high.
becomes a livelihood
A small loan becomes a tailor’s shop or a market stall. The loan is repaid, and it lifts the next family.
This is already happening. Through Hope Enterprises, our economic development programs, Bridges of Hope works in Burkina Faso with our microfinance partner ACFIME, in a wider network of partners that includes Kiva. Together, more than 14,000 entrepreneurs have received a loan to start or grow a business, nearly 9 in 10 of them women, with a repayment rate of 99.97%. Thousands of microcredits are freeing families from poverty. Meet ACFIME See Hope Enterprises
That is the moment we move beyond charity. When one family takes that step, its children inherit a different story. When a whole community takes it, a thousand generations inherit a different future. That is how we move beyond poverty.
Every Bridges of Hope program exists for one purpose, our mission: To promote poverty relief and community empowerment among the poorest nations of the earth.
Your part
Three ways to put capital in her hands.
Fund a microloan.
Start one woman’s business, or a co-operative of six. Repayments go on to help the next borrower.
Choose a microloan giftTrain a borrower.
Business training helps a first-time entrepreneur plan, save and succeed.
Give business trainingGive to the program.
Any amount, once or monthly, to the Bridges of Hope microloan program.
Give to microloansACFIME is an independent Burkinabè microfinance institution. Gifts on this site are made to Bridges of Hope, a registered Canadian charity, for its own programs, which it carries out with partners such as ACFIME under written agreements. Bridges of Hope does not issue receipts on behalf of any other organization. Learn more at acfime.org.
Disclaimer: Bridges of Hope International Network of Development Agencies (BOHINDA) is a registered Canadian charity. Donors may indicate a preference for how their donation will be used; however, the final decision on the use of all funds rests with BOHINDA. In accordance with CRA guidelines, if BOHINDA is unable to use the donation as the donor prefers, the donation will not be returned, but will be applied to the organization’s charitable purposes where it is needed most.
Fund the loan that ends the handout.
Put capital in a mother’s hands and watch a family move beyond poverty.
Why we do what we do
In Jesus’ name. For the glory of God.
“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me… Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”Matthew 25:35–36, 40 (NIV)
Six people Christ asks us to see. Six ways we answer.
Matthew 25 is our inspiration: we answer the call of Christ to care for the poor, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger and the prisoner, with compassion, love, justice and mercy, and we serve every person with dignity, whatever their faith. Every plate, well, classroom and loan is an act of worship. To God be the glory.