Oikocredit, IDB Invest and Cooperativa Jardín Azuayo announce groundbreaking diversity and inclusion social bond
Press releases
Patricio Torres, Investment Officer Oikocredit, Lucas Achig Subia, President Board of Directors Jardín Azuayo, and Lorena Torres, Investment Manager Oikocredit. Combined US$ 20 million investment will increase the Ecuadorian savings and credit cooperative’s services for women and low-income entrepreneurs.
Amersfoort, the Netherlands – Social impact investor Oikocredit and IDB Invest are each providing US$ 10 million to Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Jardín Azuayo in Ecuador as a highly innovative, diversity and inclusion social bond with performance-based incentives.
Cooperativa Jardín Azuayo will use the finance to promote and expand access to credit for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Ecuador owned or led by women, people with low incomes or low educational attainment, members of Indigenous communities, ethnic minorities and migrants. Jardín Azuayo provides financial services and cooperative education in support of the solidarity economy and a caring society.
Oikocredit’s investing partner, IDB Invest, is the private-sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank. As part of its support, IDB Invest will provide advisory services to Jardín Azuayo in evaluating and improving credit decisions towards women and underrepresented groups and pay a results-based monetary bonus tied to reaching women entrepreneurs, including Indigenous and migrant women.
The new social bond has endorsement from the Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative (We-Fi), an international partnership aimed at expanding financing and access to financial markets for women-owned and women-led MSMEs.
About Cooperativa Jardín Azuayo
Cooperativa de Ahorro y Crédito Jardín Azuayo is a participative and inclusive member-owned cooperative society that contributes to improving the living conditions of communities in Ecuador through financial services and cooperative education. With branches throughout the country and guided by values of solidarity, mutual support, transparency and respect for nature, Jardín Azuayo’s financial client services include credit, savings and interbank transfers, alongside non-financial services such as advice to migrants.
For more information, visit https://www.jardinazuayo.fin.ec.
About IDB Invest
IDB Invest is the private-sector arm of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group. Committed to economic growth and social inclusion, it finances projects in Latin America and the Caribbean that advance clean energy, modernise agriculture, strengthen transportation systems and expand access to financing. IDB Invest is owned by its 48 member countries, 26 of which are in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
For more information, visit https://idbinvest.org/en.
About Oikocredit
Social impact investor and worldwide cooperative Oikocredit has nearly five decades of experience funding organisations active in financial inclusion, agriculture and renewable energy.
Oikocredit’s loans, equity investments and capacity building aim to enable people on low incomes in Africa, Asia and Latin America to improve their living standards sustainably.
Oikocredit finances more than 500 partners, with total outstanding capital of € 1,010.6 million (at March 2023).
For more information, visit www.oikocredit.coop.
