The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) granted a $100 million loan to Peru's Corporación Financiera de Desarrollo to allow more micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), particularly those owned or led by women, to secure financing for productive investment.

The Program for Financing Female Entrepreneurs in Peru seeks to narrow the gender gap in this business segment, which has the largest barriers to accessing credit. The program will benefit more than 8,500 MSMEs, over 5,000 of which will be headed by female entrepreneurs.

The loan’s resources will be allocated according to the characteristics of female entrepreneurs in Peru, where most MSMEs are clustered in the trade and services sectors. As a result, there is expected to be greater market demand from companies in these segments. 

The Corporación Financiera de Desarrollo, Peru's leading wholesale bank and the program's executing agency, will distribute financing for MSME through intermediary financial institutions. The program will seek to drive economic growth among MSMEs, especially those owned by women, by boosting their average revenue.

The program also aims to tackle climate change by allocating at least 5% of its resources ($5 million) to financing climate action investments made by MSMEs.

The program will provide technical support focused on strengthening and scaling up institutional capacities to counteract the supply-side barriers faced by MSMEs headed by women. This support includes adapting products to address non-financial considerations, reporting data disaggregated by sex, and providing a better understanding of entrepreneurial women as a segment.

The $100 million IDB loan has a 24.5-year repayment period, a 6-year grace period, and an interest rate based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR).