Housing Finance and Business-Repair Project for Haitian Earthquake Survivors Nears Realization

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A project poised to deliver affordable home finance and business repair loans to more than 4000 Haitian families affected by the 2010 earthquake moved a step closer to reality today with the signing of a loan agreement between the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and a U.S. small business. Combining $17 million in financing from OPIC, a $6 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and $3 million from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, the Haiti Housing Facility will create three new loan products for low-income borrowers, to be made available through Haitian non-bank financial institutions. OPIC first announced the project in October 2012.

OPIC President & CEO Elizabeth Littlefield and Franck Daphnis, President & CEO of Development Innovations Group, a U.S. housing finance and urban development firm that will manage the project, signed the agreement at a Port-au-Prince ceremony witnessed by Acting USAID Haiti Mission Director Herbie Smith, left, and John Robinson, Head of the U.S. Embassy’s Economic Section, right.

OPIC is the U.S. Government’s development finance institution. It mobilizes private capital to help solve critical development challenges and in doing so, advances U.S. foreign policy. Because OPIC works with the U.S. private sector, it helps U.S. businesses gain footholds in emerging markets catalyzing revenues, jobs and growth opportunities both at home and abroad. OPIC achieves its mission by providing investors with financing, guarantees, political risk insurance, and support for private equity investment funds.

Established as an agency of the U.S. Government in 1971, OPIC operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to American taxpayers. OPIC services are available for new and expanding business enterprises in more than 150 countries worldwide. To date, OPIC has supported more than $200 billion of investment in over 4,000 projects, generated an estimated $75 billion in U.S. exports and supported more than 277,000 American jobs.

About Development Innovations Group

Development Innovations Group (DIG) is a private, international firm committed to fostering innovative solutions in the fields of financial services for the poor; urban, water, and infrastructure services; as well as fund management. DIG has worked in 40 countries, including in post-disaster and post-conflict settings, striving to catalyze home-grown solutions to universal development challenges.