The BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s (BBVAMF) 2024 Impact Report shows that vulnerable entrepreneurs supported by its microfinance institutions (MFIs) employed more than 158,000 people in Colombia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Chile and Panama in the same year.
These figures are part of a regional context where micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) account for 99% of all businesses and generate approximately 60% of formal employment in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In Spain, the importance of SMEs is very similar: they also represent 99% of all companies and employ 62% of the population, according to the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism.
A Spanish foundation that promotes employment and development in Latin America
The BBVAMF supports more than three million low-income entrepreneurs in five Latin American countries. In 2024, it disbursed microloans worth more than $1.5 billion.
The Impact Report notes that the long-term relationship with them—beyond the loan—is key to transforming their lives: “Combining financing, education and digitalization has a transformative impact on the lives of thousands of families, contributing to poverty reduction and job creation. After three credit cycles, most of the entrepreneurs we serve have overcome poverty,” explains Stephanie García Van Gool, director of Impact Measurement and Strategic Development at BBVAMF.
entrepreneur Élida Flores employs four people on her organic cocoa farm in the Peruvian jungle
BBVAMF is the first private institution to measure multidimensional poverty in each household it serves, which includes analyzing deprivations in health, education, and housing in order to assess their needs and offer them tailored products and services. According to the Foundation’s report, 36% of new entrepreneurs accessed the financial system for the first time thanks to the BBVAMF, more than half are under 30 years old, and 40% live in rural areas.
This is the case of farmer Élida Flores, who lives in the Peruvian jungle. She studied accounting but decided to start her own business to be her own boss and improve her family’s income. She leased seven hectares of land to grow organic cocoa and, thanks to the income she has earned, she now owns the land and employs four people. She wants to continue expanding the business to provide jobs for more people in her community. “There is a great need for jobs here. There is no time to give up,” says this entrepreneur, who is supported by the FMBBVA through Financiera Confianza, its MFI in Peru.
Accessing job opportunities is not easy in such a remote area. Stories like Élida’s show that with support, young people in rural areas anywhere in the world can become drivers of employment. In Spain, more than 4,000 villages are at risk of depopulation. In rural areas, only 26% of the business fabric corresponds to new initiatives, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Report (GEM) Spain 2023-2024.
