Microfinance Focus, December 13, 2012: IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, recently announced a total of USD 10 million, five year local-currency loans to two Institutions, Asociación La Nacional and to Fondo Para el Desarrollo, Inc (FONDESA) in the Dominican Republic. Each institution will receive a five-year, local-currency loan of 195 million Dominican pesos (approximately $5 million).
Asociación La Nacional is the largest Asociación in the Dominican Republic expected to use this loans to provide mortgage lending for low- and middle-income housing as well as financing for small businesses in the Dominican Republic.
FONDESA is an NGO with plans to convert to a savings and credit bank in the next year will use this fund to increase its financing for micro-entrepreneurs in the Dominican Republic and strengthen micro-finance services in rural areas, where there is lower banking penetration.
These investments are funded with proceeds from the IFC Taino Bond, which was issued earlier this month. The bond is IFC’s first domestic issue in the Dominican Republic and raised 390 million Dominican pesos (approximately $10 million). It is also the first IFC bond in Latin America and the Caribbean, whose proceeds are directly linked to investments in the local private sector, creating access to local-currency finance while providing a viable channel for domestic savings to be directed into productive long-term investments.
Over the last three years, IFC has invested $638 million in the Caribbean. In 2011, IFC’s clients supported more than 28,000 jobs in the region and reached more than 130,000 patients, 2,300 students, and 4 million customers through power generation.
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