The Multilateral Investment Fund today announced the approval of the purchase of a 30-year floating bond worth $2.8 million from Development Finance Limited in Trinidad & Tobago that is designed to help finance approximately 2000 microentrepreneurs in the Caribbean.
The bonds will help support the consolidation of DFL’s subsidiary, Caribbean Microfinance Limited, which specializes in supplying credit and financial services to a clientele in Trinidad & Tobago.
CML plans to expand services to hundreds of microentrepreneurs in the neighboring countries of Barbados and Guyana, bringing financing to microenterprises in the three countries. CML’s goal is to increase its microcredit portfolio by at least the size of the bond issue within the next four years.
The operation is the first MIF first bond operation for the Caribbean.
The Multilateral Investment Fund, an autonomous fund administered by the Inter-American Development Bank, finances innovative projects through grants and investments to promote private sector growth, labor force training and small enterprise modernization in Latin America and the Caribbean.