Background and Fact Sheet: March 2009

February 25th, 2009

Opportunity International is one of the world’s leading microfinance organizations. Through implementing partners in 27 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America, Opportunity provides a wide range of financial services and business training to the working poor.

Microloans
A small loan to an entrepreneur in the developing world can be used to start or expand a business, develop a steady income, provide for a family and create jobs for neighbors. The loan allows the recipient to increase business and profits while paying back the loan with interest at local market rates.  It offers the poor a hand up, not a hand out.

Opportunity International offers a mix of individual and group loans, allowing clients to access larger loans as their businesses grow. The Trust Group, Opportunity’s core group-lending methodology, is typically the first point of entry, bringing together 15 to 40 poor entrepreneurs who receive weekly business and life skills training from loan officers.

Opportunity International 2008 Highlights – LOANS
Active loan clients worldwide: 1,243,906
Value of loans outstanding: $562 million
Average first group loan: $181
Loans to women:           85%

Banks
In the late 1990s, Opportunity International identified the need to expand beyond microloans to a full range of financial services. In most countries, the poor have been excluded from traditional banks. Savings were kept in and around homes or held by collectors who charged service fees.

Opportunity International 2008 Highlights – SAVINGS
Current savings accounts:           423,262 (voluntary)
Average balance in each account: $440
Savings balance:                       $186.4 million  

Today, Opportunity International’s strategy is to build full-service microfinance banks for the poor, allowing clients to earn interest on savings in a safe, secure location in addition to gaining access to its credit facilities. Since 2000, Opportunity has built 17 commercial microfinance institutions in 16 countries.

Countries include: Albania, China, Ghana, India, Macedonia, Malawi, Mexico, Montenegro, Mozambique, the Philippines (two separate institutions), Poland, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia and South Africa. The organization will open two to three banks annually over the next several years, primarily in Africa and Latin America.  Opportunity International operates more banks in Africa than any other microfinance organization.

Insurance
MicroEnsure (formerly the Micro Insurance Agency), a subsidiary of Opportunity International, is the leading innovator in the development of insurance products designed to provide a financial safety net for the poor. Through extensive market research and insurance expertise, products are designed to be affordable to the poor and sustainable for distributors and insurance companies. 

With almost 816,000 policyholders covering 3.25 million lives in 10 countries in Africa and Asia, MicroEnsure is the world’s first and largest stand-alone microinsurance broker.

With average premiums of about $1.50 per month for a family of five, MicroEnsure is making affordable life insurance available for the first time, exclusively offered to the poor. 

MicroEnsure developed the first life insurance policy to cover persons infected with HIV/AIDS in Uganda, and it is pioneering innovative crop insurance products for poor rural farmers in Malawi. 

The organization offers insurance in Colombia, Ghana, India, Malawi, Mexico, Mozambique, the Philippines, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and has received a $24.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to enable the Agency to enter 11 new countries and provide life, health and crop insurance to 21 million poor people by 2012.

Facts

Opportunity International – Countries Served
Africa: Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Eastern Europe: Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia
Asia:China, India, Indonesia, Philippines
Latin America:Colombia, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru

Employees
Global employees 10,556
Loan officers 5,795

Implementing Partners (engaged in operating programs)
43 partners
27 countries

Supporting Partners (engaged in fundraising)
Australia
Canada
Germany
United Kingdom
United States

February 25th, 2009