Lima - Citi, a financial institution with more than 100 years of operations in Peru, loaned US$ 20 million to Innova Schools – part of Grupo Intercorp – to build and renovate schools in an effort to improve access to quality education in the country. Innova Schools has 63 schools in 17 cities in Peru, serving approximately 50,000 students.
The loan will allow Innova Schools to expand access to education, especially for the emerging middle class, with high-quality services that it estimates will reach nearly 3,000 additional students.
The deal is part of a larger co-financing project in partnership with a European development agency that channels capital toward social projects in Latin America, Africa and Asia.
“Facilitating access to international-caliber education that is within the means of families looking for innovative, high-quality services is a pillar of Citi’s social finance strategy. We are proud to support a distinguished institution like Innova Schools in giving more students access to an innovative educational model, and we hope to continue working with high-impact investors to bring more capital to the region,” commented Jorge Rubio Nava, Global Director of Citi Social Finance.
“We are very pleased to have Citibank as a partner in our growth for 2023. Investing in the expansion of our current facilities will allow us to offer more families a quality, accessible and student-centered education,” remarked Daniel Duharte, CEO of Innova Schools.
“This is Citi Peru’s first transaction in the educational sector, and it demonstrates our commitment to expand the bank’s sustainability efforts by supporting clients such as Intercorp that are committed to these goals,” added Miguel Uccelli, Citi’s Managing Director in Peru.
The loan is in line with Citi’s Social Finance criteria for Access to Basic Services, especially Education; in this case, a project that promotes an inclusive and scalable educational model for Latin America. Citi Social Finance’s goal is to support 15 million people, 10 million of them women, by 2025.
It also complements the $1 billion Social Finance Bond for Emerging Markets Citi issued in late 2021 to finance operations designed to increase access to credit, infrastructure and basic services in developing countries.