The SANAD Fund for MSME – 2025 Year in Review: Back to Growth, Deeper Impact for MSMEs in MENA

Luxembourg January 15th, 2026 –The SANAD Fund for MSME (SANAD) returned to a growth trajectory in 2025, disbursing over USD 160 million in impactful investments across the Middle East, North Africa (MENA), and select countries of Sub‑Saharan Africa. These investments provided vital liquidity to MSMEs on the ground—helping entrepreneurs sustain operations, safeguard jobs, and finance growth in challenging market conditions.

SANAD’s Debt Sub-Fund closed the year working with 36 active partner institutions, including six new partners in 2025, and established new relationships in Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Uganda. 

In a milestone for the fund’s real‑economy reach, SANAD completed its first direct finance transactions with agricultural companies in Egypt and Morocco, providing working capital to reinforce their MSME supplier networks. The fund invested in Maisadour Maroc (Morocco) and Capital Agro (Egypt) and complemented its financing with advisory and capacity building to support their responsible and sustainable operations.

In 2025, SANAD again prioritized local‑currency financing—with over 20% of annual investments extended to Micro- Finance Institutions and Non-Bank Financial institutions with limited foreign exchange risk‑mitigation options—shielding end‑borrowers from currency volatility and enabling more predictable cash‑flow planning.

Throughout 2025, the fund continued financing partner institutions in the Palestinian Territories and launched a crisis‑response grant program to help MSMEs, and partner institutions sustain operations in an extremely difficult environment amid the prolonged conflict in Gaza. The approved program is designed to provide targeted resilience measures for partner institutions and MSME clients, aligned with SANAD’s mission. 

The fund pursued its strategy in supporting innovation in the region, with new equity investments totaling USD 13.5 million in financial technology companies. These investments provide patient growth capital to innovative financial services providers, with a strong focus on broadening financial inclusion for underserved segments of the market through digital channels. SANAD’s equity sub-fund II completed the year with close to USD 34 million in portfolio investments.

Wrapping up the year, SANAD completed its transition to an AIFMD‑regulated structure in Luxembourg, following the CSSF’s no‑objection on November 28, 2025. The new setup is designed to facilitate further mobilization of public and private capital and turn it into impactful investments across its dynamic market of operations.

“In 2025, SANAD combined disciplined growth with targeted innovation—as local‑currency lending with enhanced impact targets and, to direct finance for agribusiness value chains—designed to support MSMEs in navigating volatility and investing for the future. Our transition to a fully regulated AIFM platform underpins our ambition to mobilize capital where it matters most: for the MSMEs in Northern Africa and Middle East as well as selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa,” said the SANAD Board Chair Sandra Rohleder.

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About SANAD
The SANAD Fund for MSME finances micro, small, and medium enterprises and low-income households in the Middle East and North Africa and selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa via qualified local lenders. SANAD thereby fosters economic development and job creation – including youth employment – agriculture, affordable housing, and innovations in finance and financial technologies. SANAD strives to meet these goals by providing debt and equity financing to its local partners. The SANAD Technical Assistance Facility multiplies the fund’s development impact and outreach through capacity-building with partner institutions, developing financial infrastructures according to the principles of responsible finance and conducting much required R&D.  

An impact investment fund managed by Finance in Motion, SANAD’s investors include the KfW Development Bank, which initiated the fund; the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); the European Union; Switzerland’s State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO); OeEB, the Development Bank of Austria; Germany’s GLS Bank and GLS Treuhand; the Dutch development bank FMO; and Calvert Impact Capital.  

About Finance in Motion
Finance in Motion structures, manages, and advises almost €4 billion across 10 funds, all classified as Article 9. These private market funds drive impact for people and planet through regional financial intermediaries, direct investments, advisory and capacity building. Founded in Germany, with local expertise from Latin America to CEE, it has been investing in emerging markets for over 20 years. www.finance-in-motion.com