EFTA financed its first lease in 2004, and over the following five years we invested a total of USD 500,000 across 75 investments in small businesses from our first branch in Moshi in Northern Tanzania. This pilot phase proved the business case for our core business.
Given the commercial potential and the large market size that was evident during this initial phase, Equity for Africa agreed to commercialize EFTA to invest in for-profit capital. In November 2010, Equity for Africa was selected as a winner of the Group of 20’s SME Finance Challenge, presented by Barack Obama at the Seoul Summit in South Korea.
This in turn enabled EFTA to raise a USD 5 million impact investment fund called “PEAK II”, which closed in 2012. In 2014 we announced a new USD 5m investment of equity and debt from AgDevCo directly into EFTA. As of 2018, EFTA is continuing with further significant fundraising to support its growing lease portfolio.