Brazil’s biggest microfinance program, a leading Colombian NGO and a Chilean government agency noted for its high-quality services won the Inter-American Development Bank’s annual awards for institutions that excel in their support for microenterprises in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Microenterprises – businesses that typically have fewer than 10 employees – generate more than half the jobs in this region. Tens of millions of poor families depend on these ventures as their main sources of income.
Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo and IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno are due to hand out the awards to Brazil’s CrediAmigo, Colombia’s Fundacion Mundial de la Mujer de Popayan and Chile’s SERCOTEC after the inauguration of the 11th Inter-American Microenterprise Forum on October 8, 2008 in Asuncion, Paraguay.
CrediAmigo won the IDB’s award for excellence in microfinance for regulated institutions. The program run by state-owned Banco do Nordeste has more than 340,000 clients across Brazil’s poorest region. CrediAmigo’s success has encouraged other Brazilian banks to start microfinance programs. As a socially and economically responsible lender, CrediAmigo has established an ombudsman’s office to deal with clients’ concerns and complaints.
Fundacion Mundial de la Mujer de Popayan is a second-time winner of the IDB’s award for excellence in microfinance for non-regulated institutions. This Colombian NGO, a member of the Women’s World Banking network, last year had more than 223,000 borrowers. Building from its geographically remote base in southern Colombia, it has grown to become the second largest microlender in the country. FMM Popayan also has outstanding levels of productivity and is a proven leader in responsible finance.
The IDB award for excellence in entrepreneurial development services went to Chile’s SERCOTEC, a government-funded service that helps microenterprises boost their productivity through training and access to credit and modern technologies. Regarded by many experts as the most efficient small business agency in Latin America, SERCOTEC consistently receives very high satisfaction ratings from its own clients and partners.
Microenterprise Forum
The forum, which will take place October 8-10 at Asuncion’s Conmebol Convention Center, will bring together more than 1,000 delegates from microfinance institutions, credit unions, commercial banks, foundations, investment funds, government agencies and international aid organizations.
Participants are due to focus on two central issues during the forum. The title topic, from the margin to the mainstream, spotlights the need to use microfinance and other tools to help entrepreneurs working in the fringes of society become part of the formal economy.
The other top question for participants is how to ensure that microfinance remains a socially and economically responsible industry in Latin America and the Caribbean – particularly to avoid the excesses that led to the meltdown of the subprime mortgage market in the United States.