Financial Sustainability Rating (FSR) Announcement: MicroLoan Foundation Zambia

Inclusion [Social Ratings] today released a newly assigned Financial Sustainability Rating (FSR) on MicroLoan Foundation Zambia, an MFI based in the Republic of Zambia.

MicroLoan Foundation Zambia (MLF-Z)’s Social Mission is “to provide the poorest women in Sub-Saharan Africa with the tools to enable them to work their own way out of poverty.”

Inclusion [Social Ratings] assigned MicroLoan Foundation Zambia an FSR rating grade of FSR3-, following remote due diligence of the organization’s operations and interviews with staff. A FSR3 grade indicates that an organization’s infrastructure and processes are consistent with a good likelihood of operating in the best interests of its clients and beneficiaries, that this is among its high priorities and that it attempts to manage the risk of causing adverse effect to its beneficiaries and other stakeholders.

An FSR3 rating is consistent with a financial institution that:

  • adheres to good practice in most of the key FSR factors,
  • demonstrates that it has adequate information systems, internal controls and procedures related to the information provided for the FSR,
  • exhibits a decent trend of financial results and there are some risks to future earnings potential,
  • maintains reasonable standards in terms of client and financial resource protection practices.

The “-” appended to the FSR3 reflects the most negative range of that rating category.

Inclusion [Social Ratings]’s FSR on MLF-Z is based on Inclusion [Social Ratings]’s Financial Sustainability Rating Methodology. An FSR measures financial sustainability on a fifteen-point scale, in which FSR1+ is the highest grade and FSR5-, the lowest.

 

About Inclusion [Social Ratings]’s Financial Sustainability Ratings 

The Inclusion [Social Ratings] FSR assesses the financial performance of an organization not only by looking at its past results, but also by reviewing the quality of its operational and financial structure and the processes it employs to assess the likelihood of such performance being sustained in the future. It also incorporates management interviews conducted in situ in the field and/or telephonically, and interviews with branch staff to assess the levels of financial performance that result from the activities of the organization.

A full Rating Report is also available for download from our website here.

If you need further information on these ratings or about Inclusion [Social Ratings]’s other ratings, please contact Santiago Arnaudin at sarnaudin@inclusionsocialratings.org.