COFIDES-led Huruma Fund receives ALIDE award

Fondo Huruma

05/06/2023

• Recognising its contribution to improving the agricultural sector to reduce poverty in rural farming areas

Madrid, June 05, 2023. The Latin American Association of Development Financing Institutions (ALIDE) has presented an award to the Huruma Fund in recognition of its contribution to improving the agricultural sector by helping to reduce poverty in rural farming areas. ALIDE has presented the award to recognise best practices in development financing institutions in the “Extraregional Banks” category. ALIDE has presented the award to recognise best practices in development financing institutions in the “Extraregional Banks” category.

The Huruma Fund is the first project led by COFIDES within the framework of agriculture blended finance facilities in the European Union. Managed by GAWA Capital, it has 120 million euros contributed by the European Union, FONPRODE (the Development Promotion Fund) of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), COFIDES and private investors, thanks to the collaboration of CaixaBank Private Banking, which has distributed the fund through its national network. The objective is to provide access to loans to farmers in underserved rural areas in Latin America, the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. It includes an EU funded Technical Assistance Facility (TAF) to provide consulting services and training related to agriculture, and to help improve the entities the Fund invests in, enhancing the impact on excluded rural populations.

“This award confirms the milestone that the Huruma Fund represents for COFIDES,” said José Carlos Villena, Director of COFIDES Development Alliances, after accepting the honour at the awards ceremony held in Honduras. “This is a flagship project for COFIDES, both because it is our first combined financing project with the European Union and AECID and because of the nature of the impact investment fund, its sectoral approach and its ability to mobilise private-sector financing”.

“This ability is central to COFIDES’ strategy to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the achievement of the SDGs. At COFIDES, we believe in the need to involve private investors in this type of instrument and establish an ecosystem of opportunities for both investors and recipient institutions and companies”.

ABOUT COFIDES

COFIDES, a State-owned company engaging in the management of State and third-party as well as its own funds, pursues a number of aims: internationalisation of Spain’s economy, furtherance of economic development and fortification of the solvency of companies affected by COVID-19. In addition to the Spanish State, its shareholders include Banco Santander, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Banco Sabadell and Development Bank of Latin America (CAF).

ABOUT ALIDE

ALIDE is the community of financial institutions that produce banking solutions for Latin American and Caribbean development. Founded in 1968, its main purpose is to contribute to the region’s economic and social development by promoting the use of good development finance practices among its members.

It is comprised of more than 80 member institutions operating in over 20 countries of Latin America and other regions of the world.