The Fiscal Year 2012 has been exciting for BDF, and we are proud to present the results. 

We have grown our guarantee portfolio successfully this year by 97%, stimulating cumulative loan disbursements worth over Rwf 40 Billion that small businesses need to fuel their growth and create jobs. BDF’s mission of supporting small businesses has never been more critical.

Small businesses comprise over 90% of the country’s business enterprises as revealed by the 2012 Enterprise census. Yet despite their importance to the health of the overall Rwandan economy, many small businesses struggle to access the capital they need to start, grow and  expand operations, and hire new staff. 

In 2012, BDF provided credit guarantees worth Rwf 6.8 Billion to 458 loans with cumulative credit guarantee approvals totaling Rwf 13.7 Billion to 584 loans at year-end channeled largely  in support of agriculture. Similarly, RIF Grant disbursements for the year were Rwf 621 Million for 530 loans reaching a cumulative high of Rwf 802 Million to 712 loans.  

We achieved these results due mainly to the significant contribution of the public-private partnership under the Hanga Umurimo program which brought in 108 loans that received credit guarantees worth Rwf 1.3 Billion.

During the year, we also worked to improve the guarantee processes to enhance their competitiveness and broaden our role in realizing a fair guarantee market share. In this regard, we overhauled the credit guarantee approval process, features and operating model in order to improve efficiencies and streamline activities while enhancing its attractiveness to the lending institutions. 

The changes introduced included:

- the paradigm shift to provide guarantee risk coverage for both investment assets and working capital loans, - introduction of delegated authority and loan portfolio coverage for participating financial institutions, - the move from a uniform guarantee risk coverage percentage to a wider range that considers loan risk profiles and caters for special groups,-and the revision in the trigger point for claims to when a loan becomes non performing with a limited recovery period.