FMO assists 3 microfinance institutions in Haiti with €0.63m CD Programme

Microfinance Focus, Sep 24, 2010: The international development bank of the Netherlands, The Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO) is supporting the reconstruction of Haiti’s private sector by means of targeted assistance to 3 microfinance institutions Sogesol, Finca, ACME and to a power station E-Power.

 The total amount of funding provided by the CD programme since the earthquake is EUR 637,000. FMO manages the CD programme on the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ behalf. With an investment portfolio of € 4.6 billion, FMO is one of the largest bilateral private sector development banks worldwide.

To support microfinance in Haiti, FMO is working with Accion, Finca and Incofin who, together with their microfinance partners, who work around issues such as business continuity, risk management and mobilizing and delivering assistance in the design and implementation of new financial products that address the needs of post-earthquake microentrepreneurs.

The supply of electricity in Haiti remains an acute problem. There is a significant gap between supply and demand and building capacity in power generation is therefore of vital importance. Following FMO’s USD 20.5 million finance package for E-Power Haiti, the CD programme is now also assisting E-Power to build staff capacity and training of Haitian nationals, enabling them to sustainably manage the plant. The scope of the training is related to all aspects of getting the facility installed, commissioned and up-and-running.

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