MICROCAPITAL STORY: Global Partnerships Microfinance Fund Lends USD 750,000 to Microfinance Institution (MFI) Pro Mujer Bolivia

Here is another story coming courtesy of the Microfinance Capital Markets Newsletter of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and the MIX, the microfinance information clearinghouse. Global Partnerships, a US-based investment firm devoted to microfinance, has struck an investment deal with microfinance institution (MFI) Pro Mujer Bolivia. The deal consists of a USD 750,000 loan from Global Partnerships Microfinance Fund 2006 to the Bolivian MFI (see “Investments”).Global Partnerships’ Microfinance Fund 2006, reported on by MicroCapital in April, totals USD 8.5 million, with investors including the Inter-American Development Bank, a Latin American economic grant provider, Seattle University, US nonprofit financial institution Partners for the Common Good, and finances from the ResponsAbility Global Microfinance Fund, a 2006 fund standing at USD 100.0 million. Global Partnerships has committed the fund’s USD 8.5 million to 12 to 14 Latin American MFIs besides Pro Mujer Bolivia.

Founded in 1994 by its current chairman, Bill Clapp, the beneficiary of the Weyerhaeuser Logging Company, Global Partnerships is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The firm’s connection to Latin America stems in part from its partnership with Red Centroamerica de Microfinanzas, a Central American network of MFIs in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The MIX, the microfinance information clearinghouse, reports that Global Partnerships has USD 10.0 million in total assets allocated to microfinance operations. This year, Global Partnerships projects these assets to increase to USD 30.0 million.

Loan recipient and nonprofit organization Pro Mujer Bolivia is a part of the Pro Mujer microfinance network, founded in 1990. As reported in a MicroCaptial story of March this year, the Pro Mujer network began with Pro Mujer Bolivia. The Bolivian pilot program has been the model for all of Pro Mujer’s international operations. As of 2006, the MIX reports that Pro Mujer Bolivia’s gross loan portfolio amounts to USD 13.6 million, with total assets of USD 17.8 million (see “Financial Data”). The MFI has an active borrower base of 74,106 clients (see “Outreach & Impact”). With an average micro loan size of USD 183, Global Partnerships’ USD 750,000 loan should provide Pro Mujer Bolivia’s customers approximately 4,100 new micro loans.