Every microcredit facility has a macro-impact

Founded in 2011 by the Association pour le droit à l'initiative économique (ADIE - Association for the right to economic initiative), BNP Paribas Fortis and the European Investment Fund, microStart has gradually become essential to the boom among small and medium-sized enterprises in Belgium.

4,300 grateful entrepreneurs 

In barely a decade, the microcredit organisation has injected over EUR 40 million into the country’s economy by granting loans of between EUR 500 and EUR 25,000 to over 4,300 micro-entrepreneurs.

What’s more, it has achieved a significant success rate, as 75% of the small companies created with this support are still up and running three years after they were established. This is a higher percentage than the national rate for all companies taken together, which peaks at 60%.

Volunteers are crucial!

Today, microStart is underpinned by almost forty employees, divided among its head office in Anderlecht and its Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Charleroi and Liège branches. But it also relies on a network of around 160 particularly active volunteers, two-thirds of whom come from the banking sector.

 “No fewer than 60% of the microStart volunteers involved in coaching and training entrepreneurs are in fact working or retired colleagues from our bank”, confirms Wilfried Remans, Head of CSR & Public Affairs at BNP Paribas Fortis. “The support microStart provides for entrepreneurs  is not limited to microcredit. It also includes coaching, training courses (marketing, financial management, administration, communication, etc.) and comprehensive guidance which are free of charge. We encourage our staff to lend a hand, in particular as part of our ‘1MillionHours2Help’ programme.”

If you, too, would like to help microStart as a volunteer, go to this page.Or get in touch with Adeline Hoet (microStart HR Manager).xxx

Serving its clients at the height of the crisis

Many businesses, both small and large, have suffered directly or indirectly as a result of the current health crisis. But the microcredit organisation has not abandoned its clients.

During lockdown, microStart set up an emergency fund to help meet immediate cash flow needs, as well as a system of ‘honour loans’, and then even raised the limit on its microcredit facilities to EUR 25,000!

As the icing on the cake, microStart has speeded up the digitalisation of its services and organised numerous webinars to be able to continue to coach the micro-entrepreneurs entirely via digital channels.

Refugee aid plan

As you can see, microStart bends over backwards to help thousands of small entrepreneurs successfully develop their project. And does its utmost to meet the needs of as many people as possible.

Its project aimed at facilitating the socio-professional integration of refugees is a good example of this. Moreover, in 2019 our foundation undertook to support this great project by granting EUR 100,000 a year to microStart until 2021.

Find out more

More detailed information about the products and services offered by microStart is available on its website.