Banmujer: Benefitting Over 300,000 Venezuelan Families Since 2001

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

One of Venezuela’s most important public institutions created to assist impoverished women through micro- credit lending celebrated its 10-year anniversary last week.

Banmujer first came into existence on September 21, 2001 as government run bank with the specific purpose of funding socio-productive business initiatives for women in particularly dire economic conditions. Since that time, the women’s bank has granted more than 138 thousand micro-credits, benefiting over 300,000 families in the country, Banmujer President Nora Castañeda said in an interview last week.

“Poverty has a woman’s face. This is even more evident when you look at the statistics that indicate 70 percent of world’s poor are women”, Castañeda said.

According to the bank’s president, the institution is currently active in 335 municipalities around the Caribbean country and 90 percent of Banmujer’s clients are women. Since it’s founding, more than 20,000 jobs have been created through the bank’s initiatives while in 2011 alone, the funding institution has provided more than 6,000 micro-loans to groups and individuals for productive projects.

Much of the assistance is not confined to money, the official pointed out, but rather includes a holistic program of training and assistance to help ensure the success of a particular project.

Source: venezuelanalysis.com (link opens in a new window)