Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) has announced finance and political risk insurance in support of a minimum of US$120mn in new investment for El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.
The new financing comprises Opic support for a new private equity investment fund for Central America, Mexico and Colombia; an Opic loan to fund microfinance institutions in the region; Opic loans for a series of housing construction and mortgage financing projects that will help relieve the region’s substantial housing need; and an agricultural project in Nicaragua that features both Opic financing and political risk insurance.
The insurance projects include an offshore oil and gas exploration project in Nicaragua, and US small business projects in Honduras and Nicaragua.
El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua have applied the Cafta-DR free trade agreement with the US.
Opic has also signed an agreement with the National Commission for the Promotion of Investment and Exports (Conadei) on behalf of the National Investment Promotion Agency of El Salvador (Proesa) in El Salvador, and its Honduran counterpart, the Honduran Foundation for Investment and Development of Exports (Fide), designed to facilitate Opic support for US investment in those countries.
Opic concluded a similar agreement with Nicaragua’s investment promotion agency, ProNicaragua, in January.