AHSETFIN, Asociacion Hondureña para el Desarrollo de Servicios Tecnicos y Financieros

Improving access to water for small enterprises in rural areas

Honduras

AHSETFIN, Asociación Hondureña para el Desarrollo de Servicios Técnicos y Financieros, founded in 2006, is an association that offers financial services to rural micro and small entrepreneurs through communal banks and individual loans in central and southern Honduras.

AHSETFIN was created by a group of professionals to support single mothers and men who lack access to bank credit. The organization’s main office is located in Tegucigalpa and it has a branch in the city of Choluteca (the biggest city in the south of Honduras). AHSETFIN has clients in the rural and urban areas of the departments of Francisco Morazán and Choluteca.

Their clients are mainly micro and small entrepreneurs who sell tortillas, candy, juice or run shoe-repair shops, garages and workshops.

Many of the neighbourhoods and communities where AHSETFIN’s clients run their business have no access to basic public services: water can be supplied only through water tanks. According to assessments made by AHSETFIN, 50% of their clients encounter water-shortage problems. In order to support its clients, AHSETFIN has created a special credit programme called CrediAgua. The Oikocredit loan will be used to provide financial and technical support to 500 clients to ensure adequate water supply.

AHSETFIN, Asociación Hondureña para el Desarrollo de Servicios Técnicos y Financieros has been an Oikocredit partner since 2015.