ACCION Mines Brazil’s North

Global microfinance organization ACCION International is expanding in Brazil after president Lula approved its application to establish a unit in the state of Amazonas. The IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund will take an 18.1% stake in ACCION Microfinancas. Private investor Luiz Felipe D’Avila and other private investors will own 8.5%, and ACCION will hold 73.4% of the organization. ACCION will start operations in Manaus, the largest city in Amazonas, with plans to extend to cities throughout Brazil’s northern region. The area is home to an estimated 1.9m micro entrepreneurs, just 8%-10% of who have received any kind of loan from a bank or microfinance organization, says ACCION. It issued its first microloan in Brazil in 1973. Partner microfinance institutions operate in 23 countries in LatAm, Asia, Africa and the US. In the last decade, ACCION partners have disbursed more than 28.5m loans totaling $23.4bn.