What is an "a-loan"

It's probably related to another resource speaking about advance interests. I think the "a" stands for "advance" (i.e. paying a service provider or worker partly before the initially scheduled term, so that this money should be treated like a loan that generates interests that will be later substracted from the rest of the initially scheduled amount). In French I wound translate it as "prêt-avance" or even just "avance".

Advances granted to someone for a payment that would have been granted later do not necessarily have to be given with zero-cost (notably if this happens long before this scheduled term, i.e. more than 1 month), and an interest may be taken for this service. Advances may also be granted if it is in the interest of the payer for helping the completion of the project (for example to avoid penalties or to pay for resources needed for the project but whose costs have increased above the initially scheduled margin of profitability.

Why does this apply to microfinance? One: because it is for the security of the system : advances should not be abused, and must serve the interest of the work/business project to complete. Two: because advances are replacing effectively a loan that traditional banks would have given with some interest rate or against the payment of a fee, but the microfinance organism could grant it where a traditional bank would have refused it, or granted it at very costly conditions. As banks are often partners of microfinance institutions they are asked to control the projects and should monitor their own granted credits.