DFC is committed to supporting investments that address critical development challenges throughout the Western Hemisphere. Investment in these countries can serve as a stabilizing force and help counter illicit and irregular activity related to trade and travel, including migration.
The agency has more than $11 billion invested across the Western Hemisphere in key sectors such as women’s economic empowerment, healthcare, and agriculture, as well as climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. These projects help create economic opportunities, improve quality of life, and support U.S. foreign policy and national security interests.
A DFC loan of up to $150 million will support the expansion and modernization of the Puerto Bolívar container port in Ecuador's El Oro province. The project will improve the security of global supply chains by making it more efficient for businesses in Ecuador to import and export goods. Upgrades including the addition of cold storage facilities, modern electrified cranes, and the dredging of approach channels will allow the port to accommodate larger ships, expanding the port's capacity.
A DFC equity investment in TechMet Limited will support the development of a critical mineral mining facility in Piaui, Brazil that will produce nickel and cobalt suitable for lithium-ion batteries. DFC’s investment will also support the development of new technology and designs in processes that will advance more efficient and environmentally sensitive mining practices.
In collaboration with USAID, DFC will provide a $10 million loan portfolio guaranty to Conservation International Ventures LLC (CI Ventures) to mobilize investments designed to advance conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of critical ecosystems in Mexico, Colombia, and Peru.
DFC financing is helping Forest First Colombia expand a sustainable forestry plantation in the Vichada Department, one of the country’s poorest regions. The project, which was originally developed in partnership with USAID Colombia, will help regenerate the land with at least 20 percent of the plantation dedicated to formal environmental conservation. Forest First uses a sustainable harvesting approach that is projected to sequester more than three million tons of carbon equivalent over 10 years.
DFC financing to the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI)—a regional multilateral development bank—is supporting on-lending to MSMEs in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to help them recover from the economic disruptions of the pandemic by providing them with working capital, capital financing, and startup loans.
A DFC loan is helping GIP Medicina Diagnóstica S.A. expand its chain of women’s health diagnostic centers that provide diagnostic testing, imaging, blood work, and pathology testing services. The company, which is known as Femme in the local market, currently operates 14 centers in São Paulo and will use the DFC financing to expand, adding more than 27 centers over the next six years, serving low and middle-income women. With the additional diagnostic centers, the company projects its annual patient consultations will increase from approximately 300,000 currently to more than 4.5 million. Femme plans to place new locations in underserved areas to help increase access for low-income households.
DFC financing is helping WaterEquity, a nonprofit impact investor, provide loans to microfinance lenders to help communities in Asia, Latin America, and Africa invest in water and sanitation solutions. By mobilizing significant private investment, WaterEquity has financed more than 543,000 loans that have helped nearly three million people across nine developing countries access safe water or sanitation in their homes and communities by installing toilets, septic tanks, or connections to piped water. DFC’s financing will support additional lending through 2026 aiming to bring access to water or sanitation solutions to millions more low-income families around the world.
A DFC investment guaranty to Smart RJ Concessionária de Iluminação Pública SPE S.A. (Smart Rio) will support the modernization and maintenance of public lighting systems in Rio de Janeiro. Once fully implemented, the project anticipates a reduction of between 120,000 and 150,000 tons of CO2 equivalent per year.
Political risk insurance will support an innovative project by The Nature Conservancy of Arlington, Virginia to create a fund for long-term investment in conservation in Belize.
DFC has committed $100 million of financing to help Mexico’s Credito Real expand SME lending with a focus on lending to women-owned SMEs. Credito Real, which provides small business loans, payroll loans, consumer loans, used car loans, and microfinance loans. The DFC financing will enable it to support an additional 300 businesses across a range of sectors from housing construction and transportation to retail, health and services.
DFC committed $200 million in financing to Guatemala’s Banco Industrial to expand lending to small and medium enterprises and businesses that are owned by or led by women. The financing has enabled Banco Industrial to support businesses across the country in a range of sectors.
Financing to Global Partnerships supports lending to microenterprises and other organizations in Latin America that are working to expand opportunity for people living in poverty by expanding access to paid work, education, energy, healthcare, housing, sanitation, and clean water. Most of DFC’s financing targets women, who are more likely to work in the informal economy and be vulnerable to poverty.
A $10 million loan has helped Kiva Microfunds support almost 100,000 microloans to developing country borrowers across 30 countries. With women comprising more than three quarters of borrowers, the project advances DFC’s 2X Women’s Initiative to support projects that economically empower women.
A DFC loan guaranty facility is helping Root Capital sustain livelihoods of more than one million farmers—more than half of them women—in 21 countries in Africa and Latin America.
Up to $250 million in financing is supporting construction of the 84 kilometer Rumichaca-Pasto Toll Road in southeastern Colombia. The new four-lane highway will reduce transit times between the city of Pasto and Ipiales near the Ecuador border, and improve safety along treacherous mountain corridors with improved lighting shoulders, signage, and road design.
Financing supported construction of an oil transshipment terminal—the first private port in Brazil—to move oil extracted offshore in a cost-effective and environmentally sustainable manner from floating production ships to large tankers.
Financing to Azure Source Capital, a special lending vehicle, is supporting loans to small cities and rural communities for investment in new and rehabilitated water pumps, pipelines, and storage tanks. Azure aims to improve water supply for 300,000 people, and is combining financial support with training so local residents can operate their own water systems.
Political risk insurance supported the rebuilding of the mill, which reopened in 2011 with increased production capacity, more modern equipment, and an overall design that will better withstand any future seismic activity. The restoration of the mill created local jobs and increased the food supply throughout the country.