Micro, SME and Housing Finance

Global Communities is an innovator in providing locally appropriate financial solutions that help others help themselves. We pioneered housing microfinance in the 1970s and have managed credit programs in some of the world’s most challenging environments since the 1990s, which has led to our network becoming the largest provider of microfinance services in the Middle East today. Every initiative that we undertake is designed in partnership with staff from the communities where we work, to ensure that we meet local needs appropriately.

To uphold our long history, we strive to stay at the forefront of financial services provision:

• We operate a range of financial models and offer a broad spectrum of financial products and services, to meet the wide ranging needs of our clients.
• We fill the “missing middle” gap in the microfinance market, so that successful entrepreneurs don’t hit a wall when they need funding beyond typical micro loan sizes but still don’t qualify for bank loans.
• We also provide Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) loans to businesses that need funding from US$10,000 to US$250,000, because SMEs are the largest engine of growth in developing economies, with high potential to create jobs and contribute to economic stability, but they are often seen as too risky for commercial banks.

We are also committed to going beyond finance to give back to our communities:

• We put our clients first—by adjusting our hours of operation or offering community clinic days to clients that can’t afford healthcare—to make sure working with us is a stress-free, positive part of their lives.
• We get out and active in our neighborhoods, sponsoring in fundraising teams or sporting events, or holding charity dinners during holiday seasons, to make sure that we remember who we are serving and why.
• We emphasize training and personal development opportunities within our institutions, to build loyalty and a brighter future for our most important asset: our staff.  

In total, Global Communities has development finance institutions in Bosnia, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Romania, and the West Bank and Gaza.

The Vitas Group

Vitas Group is a core element of the Global Communities strategy to have a long-term, positive role in our communities through development finance. As a commercial holding company, Vitas consolidates the assets of our locally-registered microfinance companies under one roof, which provides us greater access to commercial sources of funding, including debt and equity investments. The holding company structure also allows us to pursue large scale technical assistance grants that can be used across our network to improve the quality of our operations and build up our staff capacity through trainings and professional development opportunities. The combination of all these resources allows us to improve and expand our existing operations and to research new areas where we can expand to make a real and lasting difference.

Vitas Group has been active since 2011, when Global Communities (then CHF International) signed a landmark agreement with its first minority investor, BlueOrchard Private Equity Fund, for a 20 percent stake in the company. Vitas Group currently houses two subsidiaries—Vitas Romania and Vitas Lebanon—and aims to incorporate subsidiaries in Jordan, Iraq and the West Bank & Gaza over the next two years, and invest in at least one new institution over the next five years.View the Vitas Group website here.