Summary: The Financial Inclusion Project Approaches its Final Year

This spring marked the start of the last year of FINCA Canada’s Financial Inclusion Project in partnership with the Government of Canada. The project aims to promote the economic prosperity of low-income women and men in Haiti and the DRC by providing the means to increase their income and savings—enabling them to improve their livelihoods, raise their quality of life, and increase their revenues.

Despite the many economic hardships and crises that continued to persist over the last year, both countries were able to make great gains in several areas.  In Haiti, the agriculture loan product continued to be very successful, especially among women. With 1,822 beneficiaries (82% women), FINCA Haiti has already surpassed the end of project target of 1,400 clients (60% women).  Juste Pour Elle, the loan product designed for women in the DRC, also achieved a remarkable outreach with 1,378 women beneficiaries and a total loan disbursement of USD $7.1 million in just a little over a year since its launch.

Successful results were also achieved with respect to financial literacy (FL) training for both clients. In Haiti, a total of 93,042 clients were trained in FL (91% women), approximately double the end of Project target of 49,200 while the DRC also surpassed the end of project training target of 225,963 clients trained (64% women). The Financial Literacy training program not only encourages financial inclusion but also helps the beneficiaries to better manage their finances, create balanced budgets, develop a savings culture and gain knowledge about how to deal with loans.