IFC and Nu Colombia announce alliance to promote financial inclusion of Venezuelan migrants in Colombia

Press Release

By IFC

Bogota, Colombia, April 10^th 2024. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, and Nu Colombia, a subsidiary of Nubank, one of the largest digital financial services platforms in the world, announced an alliance with the objective of promoting the financial inclusion of forcibly displaced Venezuelans in Colombia.

The agreement will allow Nu Colombia to build the foundations to launch, in the future, a market strategy that promotes the financial inclusion of this population through access to digital financial services focused on savings accounts. Digital savings accounts represent a potential entry point into the formal financial sector, as the information used in these transactions provides records that could eventually be used for credit evaluation.

Elizabeth Martínez de Marcano, IFC Director for Colombia, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, said: “With this alliance, IFC meets two objectives. First, it promotes its inclusion strategy in Colombia by expanding access to financial services to segments historically excluded from the traditional banking system. Second, given the capacity demonstrated by Nu in innovation and scale, we are convinced that this effort has the potential to be replicated in other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that face similar contexts of forcibly displaced populations.”

Colombia is the country that receives the largest part of the displaced Venezuelan population - around 2.9 million people -, which represents more than 40% of total Venezuelan migration. IFC works with the private sector to identify opportunities for migrants and their host communities in four aspects: financial inclusion and promotion of entrepreneurship, delivery of basic services such as education and energy, establishment of policies that promote business creation and learning lessons shared with allies and interest groups.

About IFC

IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2023, IFC committed a record $43.7 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of global compounding crises. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.