To mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, Banco ADOPEM announced that after one year with the bank, the number of its customers living on the poverty line fall by 26%, and by 46% over two years.
The bank is manifests its commitment to sustainable and inclusive economic and social development for disadvantaged sectors of the Dominican Republic through Productive Finance. Over 3 million adult Dominican citizens have no access to the formal banking system. Banco ADOPEM works to help overcome the obstacles that prevent access to financing for the poor.
Its customers are low-income entrepreneurs, 89% of whom are in a situation of poverty and vulnerability. Over two thirds are women, and 39% live in remote rural areas. The financial literacy and training programs they offer to entrepreneurs contribute to improving the management of their businesses and their productive capacity.
Since 2011, over 14,000 entrepreneurs who joined the bank when they were poor have succeeded in rising above the poverty threshold.
The bank has a network of 72 branch offices and 123 banking subagents. It is currently working on a program of specialized advice to assess and reduce the cost of its products, and it continues to develop specific services tailored to its customers’ needs.
Of its 406,781 savings accounts, 33,603 belong to the Cuenta Mía program, designed to motivate a savings culture among children and young people.
The group loans it offers include particularly Grupo Solidario (Solidarity Group), Banca Comunal (Community Bank), Micro-micro, Microempresa (Microenterprise), Pymes (SMEs), Préstamo a la vivienda (Home loan), Crédito Fomento Macadamia (Macadamia development loan) and Préstamo Agropecuario (Agricultural loan).
And its programs and projects include the Educa-T education loan, Hábitat Internacional, Patrimonio Hoy (Assets Today), Programa de Crédito a Mujeres Marginadas (Credit Program for Marginalized Women), Micro Franquicias ADOPEM-NESTLÉ (ADOPEM-NESTLÉ micro-franchises), Proyecto Cadenas de Valor-CTA (CTA Value Chain Project), Agrocrédito (Agricultural loan) for financial inclusion of productive families, and Créditos Verdes (Green Loans) as a strategy for financial inclusion in rural areas of the Dominican Republic-Redomif.