Microfinance Focus July 13, 2011: The Board of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) recently approved USD 45 million to support housing microfinance lending by Habitat for Humanity. The new initiative, MicroBuild I, a subsidiary of Habitat for Humanity International, will be managed by Triple Jump.

OPIC is the U.S. Government’s development finance institution that mobilizes private capital to help solve critical world challenges. The Board of OPIC approved the loan of USD 45 million to enable Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) to expand its housing microfinance lending (HMF) – a growing impact investment sector that will help thousands of low-income families around the world build, improve, and maintain decent homes.

MicroBuild I (MBI), a subsidiary of Habitat for Humanity International, will use proceeds of the OPIC loan to lend to selected microfinance institutions around the world, which in turn will make housing microfinance loans to individual families for the purpose of home improvement. MBI will be managed by Tripe Jump.

The housing microfinance program has been designed to meet the housing needs of low-income families with little or no access to the formal banking sector or mortgage loans. MBI will mobilize funding at the lowest possible cost and select intermediaries committed to fair pricing and sustainability.

Habitat for Humanity International has made HMF a strategic focus and intends to use MBI as a vehicle to deliver decent housing to the world’s poor, in part by drawing other global investors into the sector.