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”).
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MICROCAPITAL STORY: Pro Mujer Executive Director Carmen Velasco Discusses Microfinance at the White House Conference on the Americas
Pro Mujer, meaning “Pro Woman” in Spanish, is a Latin American development organization that facilitates the growth of sustainable microfinance institutions. Founded in Bolivia in 1990, it now also operates in Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru. Pro Mujer’s most recent combined financial statement, published in 2006, revealed assets in excess of USD 25 million and a loan portfolio over USD 19 million. With an estimated client base of over 200,000, Pro Mujer helps thousands of poor, uneducated women to escape poverty by encouraging entrepreneurial pursuits through financial services and training.
Pro Mujer Bolivia Receives 1 Million in Microfinance Loans from Hivos-Triodos and responsAbility Global Microfinance
Another story coming to us courtesy of the CGAP-MIX Capital Markets Update newsletter, Pro Mujer Bolivia received a USD 500,000 loan from Hivos-Triodos Fund and a USD 500, 000 loan from responsAbility Global Microfinance Fund. Pro Mujer is an international microfinance network which offers an integrated package of services including loans, savings, business training, healthcare and education to Latin America’s poorest female entrepreneurs. Established in Bolivia in 1990, Pro Mujer also operates in Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. Pro Mujer Bolivia is Pro Mujer’s pilot program, and has been the model on which all the other country programs have been built. As of December 2006 Pro Mujer Bolivia had 74,106 active borrowers. Its gross loan portfolio equaled USD 13,588,275, total assets equaled USD 18,320,623, total equity equaled USD 8,573,644 and its debt to equity ratio was 113.69%.
Grameen Foundation Growth Guarantee Secures $600,000 for Pro Mujer Peru
Grameen Foundation has executed its first Growth Guarantee transaction in Peru leveraging US$600,000 for Pro Mujer Peru. As stated in the press release, the financing from Banco de Credito de Peru, that country’s largest bank, was facilitated by a guarantee of US $300,000, and will fuel Pro Mujer’s plans to reach more than 72,000 poor women by 2009. This is Grameen Foundation’s second Growth Guarantee with a Pro Mujer affiliate.
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Pro Mujer Names Ben Moyer Its First Chief Executive Officer
As stated in a press release, Pro Mujer named Ben Moyer, Senior Consultant with Wainwright Investment Counsel, an independent investment consulting firm, its first Chief Executive Officer. Lynne Patterson and Carmen Velasco, Pro Mujer’s founders, will work with Mr. Moyer to develop the future path of the organization as well as now fully dedicate themselves to the network’s geographic and service expansion and to cultivating deeper relationships within the donor community.
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The Grameen Foundation’s Microfinance Awards Honors LAPO of Nigeria, Pro Mujer Bolivia, and the Ford Foundation’s Asset Building & Community Development Program
The Grameen Foundation presented its annual Microfinance Awards this year on November 9, 2006 in New York City. LAPO of Nigeria received the Excellence in Microfinance Award and Pro Mujer Boliva received the Pioneer in Microfinance Award. A third award was introduced and presented to the Ford Foundation’s Asset Building & Community Development Program, a program that develops models to measure how the lives of microfinance clients have changed.
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Impulse Microfinance Investment Fund, Managed by Incofin, Makes USD $1 Million Debt Investment in Pro Mujer Bolivia
Private investor Impulse Microfinance Investment Fund loaned $1 million to non-profit Pro Mujer Bolivia, member of the ProMujer network operating in Bolivia, Peru, Nicaragua, and Mexico (see list and definition of microfinance networks here).
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American Microfinance Investment Fund Unitus Strikes Deals with Pro Mujer Mexico and the Jamii Bora Trust of Kenya
Unitus, a non-profit microfinance investment fund with assets of US$7,100,000 as of August 2004, completed three new microfinance investment deals. Unitus provides both strategic consulting and funding for microfinance institutions using its “Acceleration Model.”
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Inter-American Development Bank Investing and Granting $650,000 to Microfinance Institution Pro Mujer Mexico
The Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) has approved financing, which includes a $500,000 loan and a $150,000 grant, for microfinance institution (MFI) Pro Mujer Mexico (PMM), which is a part of the New York City administered transnational wholesale microfinance network Pro Mujer International. The new funding will allow PMM to extend microcredit to Central Mexico, where microfinance services are not well-established. The MFI will subsequently make initial loans between $50 and $150 to both rural and urban women microentrepreneurs. PMM is a relatively young institution established in 2002, which had a $1.2 million loan portfolio and over 10,000 active borrowers at year end 2004.
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MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Nestlé Dominican Republic, Multilateral Investment Fund, Asociación Dominicana para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ADOPEM) to Develop Microfranchise Distribution Project in the Dominican Republic
The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the US-based Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), recently announced that it has partnered with Asociación Dominicana para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ADOPEM), a microfinance institution (MFI) in the Dominican Republic, and Nestlé Dominican Republic, a unit of the Switzerland-based multinational food and beverage company, to develop a project that will give low-income women in the country an opportunity to operate micro-franchises to distribute Nestlé products in their communities [1].
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Asociación Dominicana para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ADOPEM) of the Dominican Republic Collaborates with Codespa, La Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID) of Spain to Launch Agricultural Loan Program
Asociación Dominicana para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ADOPEM), a microfinance institution based in the Dominican Republic, recently announced that it will collaborate with Codespa, a Spanish NGO that aims to increase access to jobs, healthcare and information technology, and La Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID), a Spanish nongovernmental humanitarian organization, to provide loans to farmers in the Dominican Republic [1].
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: responsAbility Loans $4.4m to Profinanzas of Peru, Coomuldesa of Colombia, the Mexican Arms of ProCredit and ProMujer
responsAbility Social Investments AG (responsAbility), a Swiss asset management company that invests in microfinance, recently reported to MicroCapital that it made debt investments totaling the approximate equivalent of USD 4.4 million through microinvestment vehicles (MIVs) it manages to Profinanzas of Peru, Coomuldesa of Colombia and the Mexican arms of ProCredit and ProMujer.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and Social Entrepreneurship Program (PES) of Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Make $3.6m Debt Investment in Cooperativa Mixta Mujeres Unidas Limitada (COMIXMUL) of Honduras, Fondo de Desarrollo Comunal (FONDECO) of Bolivia, Fundacion de Apoyo Comunitario y Social del Ecuador (FACES), Alternativa Solidaria Chiapas (ALSOL) of Mexico
In January 2011, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) provided MicroCapital with data pertaining to debt and equity investments made during 2010 via the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and the Social Entrepreneurship Program (SEP). The investments are covered by MicroCapital in three separate briefs.
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: International Finance Corporation (IFC) Implements Advisory Services Project Totaling $382,000 at Microfinance Bank, Asociacion Dominicana para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ADOPEM), in Dominican Republic
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has signed an agreement with Asociacion Dominicana para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ADOPEM), a microfinance bank in Dominican Republic, to implement an advisory services project for the institutional strengthening of the bank to enhance the financial services provided to low-income clients in the Dominican Republic. A press release from IFC states that the project will focus on improving the efficiency of the bank’s credit processes, strengthening its risk management and increasing savings mobilized. The overall amount of the project will be USD 382,000.
MICROCAPITAL STORY: International Finance Corporation (IFC) Provides $2.1m to Corporacion Mundial de la Mujer de Medellin (WWB Medellin)
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, will provide up to COP 4 billion, approximately USD 2.1 million, to Colombia’s Corporacion Mundial de la Mujer de Medellin (WWB-Medellin) in order to support the bank’s expansion. This financing follows another loan of up to USD 2.1 million that IFC committed earlier this year to WWB Medellin.
MICROFINANCE EVENT: Carmen Velasco, Co-Founder of Pro-Mujer to Speak at Women Advancing Microfinance Talk in New York
WOMEN ADVANCING MICROFINANCE-NEW YORK (WAM-NY) VOICES FROM THE FIELD SERIES: CARMEN VELASCO, CO-FOUNDER OF PRO MUJER
FEBRUARY 20, 2008, BEAR STEARNS, NEW YORK
Carmen Velasco is a Bolivian born child psychologist and co-founder of Pro Mujer, a microfinance network that offers credit, savings accounts, health care services and training to poor women entrepreneurs in Latin America. Carmen will speak about her experience as a microfinance practitioner in Bolivia and in other countries throughout Latin America.
ProMujer Nicaragua and ACODEP of Nicaragua are Latin American Winners of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) Financial Transparency Award 2006
Programas para la Mujer (ProMujer) Nicaragua was recently among the winners of the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) Financial Transparency Awards 2006. ProMujer Nicaragua is part of the ProMujer Microfinance Network which provides loans, training and education to women, and was established in 1996. It was the first ProMujer organisation to be replicated outside of Bolivia where the network was first founded in 1990. According to the Mix Market, the microfinance information clearing house, at the end of 2005 ProMujer Nicaragua had a gross loan portfolio equal to USD 2,542,609 and a debt to equity ratio of 56.92%. Its return on assets was 12.97% while its return on equity was 18.28%. According to the ProMujer website, as of March 2006 they had 11,182 active borrowers.
ProMujer Bolivia Borrows $1.5 Million in Microfinance Investment Deal Between Grameen Foundation, Banco de Credito de Bolivia and Regional Player Banco Bisa
With the Grameen Foundation providing loan guarantees of $750,000, Banco de Credito de Bolivia and Banco Bisa, both Bolivian commercial banks, will lend a total of $1.5 million to ProMujer Bolivia, a microfinance institution (MFI) belonging to the ProMujer network across Latin America. Loan guarantees provide collateral substitutes for disadvantaged borrowers, altering lender behavior by covering part of the loan risk.