Quito, 6 October 2008. SNV has negotiated an agreement with the Center for International Development at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to launch the ‘Entrepreneurial Financial Lab (EFL)’ in Latin America.

The EFL will develop and test a technology to evaluate the entrepreneurial potential of applicants for small business financing in developing countries, screening them based on their future earning potential.

The initiative aims to unlock dormant capital in developing countries and bring SMEs who would not otherwise have access to capital into the formal financial system. SNV will lead the implementation of field trials in Latin America, identifying appropriate financial institutions for pilot projects, supporting research, conducting evaluations and disseminating results. The model will eventually be spread more widely to extend the use and scale the impact of SME lending. The project will aim to facilitate access to credit and the effective supply of capital for entrepreneurial SMEs – currently one of the bottlenecks for scaling the Inclusive Business model.  

For more info, email: latinamerica@snvworld.org