The Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund announced today the approval of a US$1 million loan to Banco Regional S.A. in Paraguay to support the expansion of financial services coverage for small and medium-sized rural entrepreneurs. The operation includes a US$146,000 technical cooperation grant
“This financial and technical cooperation project will promote diversification of the financial products available to small and medium-sized producers as new funding options for their traditional activities,” said MIF Team Leader Edgar Rivera.
“The MIF will extend a line of credit that will enable Banco Regional to offer longer-term financing,” added Rivera. “The technical cooperation will strengthen the institution to develop new innovative risk analysis techniques and tools”.
This project is complemented by a US$1 million loan operation approved by the Inter-American Investment Corporation, another member of the IDB Group. The initiative is part of a cooperation program established by the MIF and the IIC to jointly boost penetration by financial intermediaries in the small and medium-sized enterprise sector. Both organizations will jointly coordinate the project supervision and performance.
Banco Regional S.A. was established in 1991 by a group of local entrepreneurs to further the development of the productive and industrial sector in the departments of Itapúa and Alto Paraná, Paraguay’s most important agricultural and agroindustrial zone.
MIF, an autonomous fund administered by the IDB, supports private sector development in Latin America and the Caribbean, focusing on microenterprise and small business.