NOA sh.a
Komuna e Parisit, Street: “Tish Daia”, Complex “Kika 2”, Building no. 2 Tirana, Albania
Tel: +355 68 400 14 03
Email: info@noafin.al
NOA is the direct result of an USAID microfinance initiative aiming the most vulnerable areas and populations of Albania, particularly those rural, with the objective to boost the transition towards a free and competitive market economy following the end of the communist regime. The project started in 1998 under the name of “Albanian Partner in Microcredit”. It preserved its initial status until 2007 when it was officially licensed by the Central Bank of Albania as a Non-Bank Financial Institution.
For the first time in Albania, a microfinance institution would be transferred to a fully owned foreign shareholder: NOA Holdings N.V.. It is at this specific moment that NOA got his current nomination and ownership structure as an independent financial institution owned by private foreign capital. Nevertheless, due to its institutional legacy, NOA kept a constant focus into supporting socially-driven investment projects promoting job-creation, youth & women professional insertion, farmers’ modernization, environmental-friendly businesses, artisanal renewal… etc. Thousands of business initiatives that wouldn’t be funded otherwise by the banking sector due to their lack of collateral and informal business status.
On the financial side, NOA has successfully achieved to preserve a solid financial portfolio having grown from 28.4 mln Eur in 2013, to 31.3mln Eur in 2015, and to 38.2 mln Eur by the end of 2018. The portfolio at risk end of Dec’18 is 3.2%, representing an average value for NOA but among the most performing ones in the microfinance market.
Albeit this market expansion, NOA has achieved to protect its financial stability due to a conservative risk policy which has made possible to be funded from international lenders such as the EIF, the Black Sea Development Bank, the EBRD etc.
NOA was also the first Albanian MFI to successfully issue a local corporate bond in ALL on November 2017.
The company employed at the end of 2018, more than 270 individuals all across the country while applying pro-active gender balanced employment schemes (50/50 gender ratio). It has also received in 2018 a special price for its inclusive practices from the biggest HR Albanian company.
NOA is member of the Albanian Microfinance Association, of the American Chamber of Commerce, of the Foreign Investments Association of Albania, and of the pan-European Microfinance Center.