Boosting Community Banking and Farming in Paraguay

Date
Jan 2012
Small and medium-scale farmers and agricultural producers are Paraguay's economic powerhouse, but their business growth has been constrained by lack of access to capital. Paraguay's first cooperatively owned bank is designed and funded to boost these producers at the base of the economic pyramid through long-term financing.The Inter-American Development Bank's Opportunities for the Majority Initiative (OMJ) is lending up to US $6 million to Banco para la Comercializacion y la Produccion S.A. (BANCOP) to expand its agricultural and intermediate lending program. OMJ support fills an important need in Paraguay¿s financial market and works to remove obstacles for producers.