Four times a year Oikocredit publishes key facts and figures on the previous quarter. Here we provide our investors and others with additional background context on developments during the first quarter of 2022.

The cultivation of cotton by West African communities has brought better infrastructure¹, more job opportunities and is an essential export of the region. But the crop’s greatest contribution is to the people whose lives it has transformed for the better. 

Known as ‘the white gold’ of the region, the country aims to produce over 1 million bales² of the fibre in 2022, making it the second largest cultivator and exporter of cotton in Africa. Read our partners story to learn how Ivoire Coton is working supporting to improve the standard of living in rural agrarian communities.

Caroline Mulwa, Oikocredit’s Investments Manager East Africa, celebrates 15 years with our cooperative this year. We took the opportunity to ask Caroline about her experience of working with us for the last decade and a half, the changes she has seen and the relevance and impact of our work.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings are fast becoming essential to investors globally. Their key advantage is aggregating ESG metrics into one simple and relatively intuitive rating that helps investors take sustainability into consideration while investing.

They are also becoming more widely available, at little to no cost. ESG data will continue to increase in relevance over the coming years as investors look for insights beyond the traditional financial lens. 

Read the article published in RiA on ESG ratings  to learn how investors can make informed decisions based on these ratings?

On January 19, 2022, the Canadian Forum for Impact Investment and Development (CAFIID) hosted a webinar titled Technology for Impact: Enabling scalable and investable social innovations. The event focused on the potential of technological innovation for promoting financial inclusion, gender equality and poverty alleviation in emerging and frontier markets. 

Read the key ideas and takeaways from the event that are shared and expanded upon in this article.

Oikocredit published Annual Report 2021. In this report you can learn about the financial results for 2021 and reports on a successful year of rebuilding and rebalancing after the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic.