Support for Bankomunales in Calamarca

(Calamarca, June 22, 2007).- A training seminar on “Building alliances with Bankomunales” was held in the locality of Calamarca (La Paz department, Bolivia) from June 10 to 15, financed by the Andean Development Corporation. The training sessions, which were attended by 25 local young people, are part of an integrated training project supported jointly by CAF and the Tomás de Aquino University of Bolivia (UDABOL).

Bankomunales are small associative financial organizations targeted at the low-income population with no access to the traditional banking system. They are based on capital contributed by local residents for investment and provision of credit services. The partners own the capital and assume the risk of making loans to generate profits for distribution. The entities are similar in nature to Grameen Bank, the microcredit bank founded by 2006 Nobel prizewinner Muhammad Yunus.

Before attending the seminar, students had to take a multimedia course. The Internet training instrument, which CAF financed in a previous phase, exploits the opportunities offered by new information technology to lower costs and reach a larger number of actors interested in promoting and expanding the use of this model of micro-financial community organization.

The objective of the seminar - the creation of new Bankomunales - saw immediate results on the last day of the course: ten students set up the first of these entities. At the end of the day two loans had already been granted and the number of members of Bankomunal had increased to 18. The closing session of the seminar was attended by representatives from CAF, Fundefir (the institution promoting bankomunales around the world), and UDABOL.

Rómulo Rodríguez from the CAF External Relations Office, said: "The Corporation has been assisting the Calamarca community for several years through various initiatives: cofinancing of installation of a computer center, and health and human capital training projects, among others." The seminar is linked to other similar social responsibility projects promoted by CAF. The CAF Local Opportunities Program aims, through micro-interventions in the local sphere, to generate basic capacities in underprivileged communities in an effort to increase real opportunities for progress.