The international border fence seen from Nogales, Ariz.Listen:
Imagine this - you live on the Nogales, Mexico side of the Border and you want to start a business. So you get a small group together of around 10 people and you go to the bank to ask for a loan.
Problem is – no bank in Mexico will loan you money.
Enter the Promex Group, a U.S. nonprofit out of Tucson that makes micro loans to entrepreneurs in the Mexican state of Sonora.
Bill Holiday, the executive director of ProMex says that the majority of the business are food preparation-things like tamales, tortillas, hot dogs – that they will prepare and sell out of their house or on the streets. The second largest businesses are the arborotes – at which individuals buy stuff from a big store and then sell it out of their house.
Holiday told a group from the Border & Immigration Ministries at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church that the program was started ten years ago with a grant and is now self sustaining.
“Having a sustainable project where the interest we are charging is covering our expenses and has allowed it to keep growing,” Holiday said.
ProMex has made 4,000 micro loans. The average loan is $400. The interest is around 1 percent per month. The pay back rate is high, at around 95 percent.
Holiday says if people can make a living in Mexico, they are less likely to enter the U.S. illegally to try to work.
“These micro loans give people a chance at self determination…and isn’t that what we all want?” said Suzanne Hesh, a member of the audience.
The ProMex Group offers tours from the U.S. into Mexico to see some of the businesses that used the micro-loan program and are now successfully running at a profit.
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