Chispa / Confia in Nicaragua

The MEDA Program in Nicaragua began in 1990 with the establishment of CHISPA, an urban micro-credit and training program located in the city of Masaya. CHISPA was one of the first programs of its kind in the country. From its central offices in Masaya, CHISPA expanded to 13 offices in other towns and cities.

In 1998, MEDA entered into an operation to convert Chispa to a regulated bank. In doing so, it brought on three international investors and merged operations with a local regulated commercial lender. The new entity was named Confia SA, of which MEDA, through its Sarona Risk Investment Fund, owned 44%.

In 2003, Sarona sold its 44% interest to IPC/IMI. At the time, Confia had a microfinance portfolio of US$15,000,000. Confia remains the largest, strongest, and fastest growing Microfinance Institution in the country.

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Building Hope with Bags of Spice

A small business in Nicaragua was formed by seven young men with the idea of re-packaging bulk spices into very small containers, such as envelopes of half an ounce. Their market was the lower end of the socio-economic scale, buyers who couldn’t afford to buy a whole bottle of cinnamon or nutmeg.

The seven partners came to CHISPA and received loans as a solidarity group, each applying his loan to the business. The total was 5,200 cordobas (about $1,000 U.S. at the time).

"At first we bought the raw material by the pound at the local market," says Rufino Lopez, coordinator of the group. "We had many problems, and we had no money to invest. The only organization that would give us a hand during those difficult times was CHISPA."

The CHISPA loan enabled them to invest in bulk purchases and basic equipment.

Three years later the collective supplies the market vendors in Masaya. It goes by the name of Modern Spice Packing and Distributing. The enterprise now provides work for 11 permanent employees; five of them are single mothers. The company has invested in the purchase of a plot of land and the construction of a small plant. (Extracted from MEDA News article; Fall 1997)

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