The ranking, elaborated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and presented today in Paris, is based on the statistics shared by more than 30 major foundations from member countries. For the first time, BBVA Microfinance Foundation has reported information from 2019 and has been acknowledged as forerunner in financing for development, second only to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
According to the report, the BBVAMF Group disbursed USD 1.2 billion in 2018 (EUR 1 billion) in microcredits to low-income entrepreneurs in Colombia, Peru, Dominican Republic and Panama. “86% of the loans were disbursed between Colombia and Peru, where the most notable programs we financed focus on environmental sustainability or women’s economic empowerment, given that they are more than half of the people we support”, confirms Gabriela Gil, Finance manager and controller of the BBVAMF. Sector-wise, 45% of the disbursements finance small trade and 20% goes to agriculture and husbandry.
“BBVA Microfinance Foundation was created with the purpose of driving development through financial inclusion, and in our 12 years of activity, we proved that microfinance fosters economic growth and reduces poverty. The best example are the five million people we have supported all these years”, confirmed the Foundation’s CEO, Javier M. Flores.
The report’s presentation took place during OECD’s Private Finance for Sustainable Development Week: ‘Aligning Finance with the Sustainable Development Goals’, which gathers more than 600 international experts from public and private organizations, to discuss how to accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Agenda and 17 Goals, by financing socially-oriented and environmentally responsible projects, and through the jobs generated by companies, service providers, supply chain, etc.
BBVAMF’s activity most directly contributes to SDG 8 “Decent work and economic growth”, SDG 2 “Zero hunger” and SDG 5 “Gender equality”, although it also impacts on 8 other Goals in varying degrees. “Sharing this information is an exercise of precision and transparency for these major foundations, given that it allows for their data to be compared with the Official Development Assistance (ODA) statistics, which includes governments and multilateral organizations, and at the same time, to complement with each other”, guarantees the OECD.
BBVAMF, sector reference
The BBVA Microfinance Foundation was created in 2007 by BBVA as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility, to put its banking experience at the service of people under vulnerable conditions. Currently, the Foundations serves 2.2 million low-income entrepreneurs in five countries in Latin America.
