Port-au-Prince, Haiti, December 14, 2011
—IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Haiti’s Sogebank are collaborating to improve Sogebank’s services for small and medium enterprises, an initiative expected to substantially increase funding for SMEs and help create jobs in Haiti.
The project involves reengineering the bank’s existing SME unit; improving its SME products, methodology, and risk management; and recruiting and training dedicated SME loan officers. As a result of these efforts, SME banking has grown from a small component of Sogebank's business to a priority strategic segment. The project is expected to result in over $40 million in funding to SMEs.
Sogebank, Haiti’s leading bank, rolled out the new initiative at a women's fair organized by Vital Voices (vitalvoices.org), an NGO that promotes local women’s handicrafts. Given the pilot’s success in Port-au-Prince, Sogebank will bring the SME loan product to the rest of the country.
This project is part of IFC’s MSME Finance Program in Latin America and the Caribbean, in partnership with the Netherlands-IFC Partnership Program, known as NIPP. IFC’s work with Sogebank is of significant strategic importance, given the Corporation’s focus on Haiti, the country with lowest income per capita in the Latin America and the Caribbean region.
“This project shows IFC’s continued commitment to the development of the Caribbean, where we are supporting financial institutions in countries such as Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Jamaica to diversify their product portfolios, improve efficiency, reduce costs, and strengthen risk management and corporate governance practices,” said Ary Naim, IFC Country Representative for Haiti.
About Sogebank
Sogebank is the leading bank in Haiti. With the largest branch network in the country, Sogebank has products spanning retail and corporate banking, microfinance, remittance distribution, and factoring. For more information, visit
www.sogebank.com
About IFC
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector. We help developing countries achieve sustainable growth by financing investment, providing advisory services to businesses and governments, and mobilizing capital in the international financial markets. In fiscal 2011, amid economic uncertainty across the globe, we helped our clients create jobs, strengthen environmental performance, and contribute to their local communities—all while driving our investments to an all-time high of nearly $19 billion. For more information, visit
www.ifc.org
.
Stay Connected
|