MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Huruma Fund to Issue Loan of $3.6m, Technical Assistance to COOPAC Norandino to Expand Agricultural Microfinance in Northern Peru

The Huruma Fund, a public-private impact investment vehicle with commitments of EUR 120 million (USD 145 million), recently issued a three-year loan of EUR 3 million (USD 3.58 million) to Cooperativo de Ahorro y Crédito (COOPAC) Norandino of Peru, a microfinance institution (MFI) aiming to provide services such as “tailored credit and savings products, at interest rates that are lower than market average” to the agrarian sector in northern Peru. To complement the loan, various partners of Huruma will support COOPAC Norandino “with projects to improve social performance, digitisation and agricultural risk management systems [and] promoting the use of data analytics in cooperatives” served by the MFI.

COOPAC Norandino was founded in 2005 in Jaen, Peru, by the Peruvian agricultural organizations CepiCafe, CenfroCafe and Oro Verde as well as the Green Development Foundation of the Netherlands. The MFI’s goal is to provide financial services leading to “the promotion of farming value chains, reinforcing smallholder associations and powering sustainable agriculture.” As of 2021, COOPAC Norandino reports a portfolio of approximately EUR 20 million (USD 23.9 million) deployed via 16 branches serving approximately 27,000 customers – of whom 32 percent are women – in the Amazonas, Cajamarca, Piura and San Martín regions.

Based in Spain, Huruma invests with the goal to “improve access to finance in rural areas and the financial supply to small or excluded farmers in Latin America, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.” It is financed by the Spanish government’s Fondo para la Promoción del Desarrollo (FONPRODE), the EU’s European Commission and multiple private investors. Huruma is led by Compañia Española de Financiación del Desarrollo (COFIDES), a development finance institution controlled by the Spanish government. The fund is managed by Gawa Capital Partners, a Spain-based investment advisory company specializing in microfinance.

By Harriet Ritchie, Research Associate

Sources and Additional Resources

Direct contact with COFIDES

COFIDES press release
https://www.cofides.es/en/noticias/notas-de-prensa/huruma-fund-marks-its-third-impact-investment-coopac-norandino

COFIDES profile on Huruma
https://www.cofides.es/en/our-work/success-stories/fondo-huruma

COOPAC Norandino homepage
https://www.coopacnorandino.com/

Gawa Capital Partners homepage
https://www.gawacapital.com/

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