Welcome FODEMI, a new Kiva field partner in Ecuador!

May 18, 2011

By: Nicolas Lafaye

Nicolas Lafaye, Portfolio Manager South-America region

FODEMI is an Ecuadorian NGO partnered with World Vision International. They are headquartered in the city of Ibarra, in Northern Ecuador. This NGO was created back in 1995 with the mission of attending clients in the poorest parts of Ecuador. Through time, they have defined poor areas based on standards of extreme poverty, social exclusion & illiteracy rates. Nowadays, FODEMI is working in 24 out of the 25 poor areas thanks to their 5 branches & 7 sales outlets spread across the Northern part of Ecuador’s Andean region.

FODEMI is one the biggest NGOs in Ecuador; they mainly serve rural & semi-urban areas with a client base close to 32,000, 70% of them being women. One of FODEMI’s most effective policies is to limit their average loan sizes to $500, indicating their intention to serving the low income population in Ecuador. This pro-poor strategy was successfully promoted by FODEMI‘s Executive Director, Mr. Luis Rios with the help of World Vision. Mr. Rios, a highly motivated & charismatic individual, has spent more than 12 years in the organization, starting as a loan officer and thus enabling him to fully understand FODEMI’s client needs.

Kiva’s 0% funding will allow FODEMI to expand serving these excluded, difficult to reach and costly to serve areas of Ecuador. Moreover, given that Ecuador has instituted interest rates caps that MFIs cannot exceed, low cost funding is critical for an MFI like FODEMI to be able to continue serving these areas.

FODEMI posted its first loan in the last week of April. Please be on the lookout for more loans from FODEMI in the future.