Jennifer Lopez supports low-income Latina entrepreneurs

Jennifer Lopez partners with non-profit Grameen America to support low-income Latina entrepreneurs, in a bid to create more equitable opportunities

Jennifer Lopez has teamed up with New York City-based microfinance non-profit Grameen America, to provide better access to capital to Latina entrepreneurs. The partnership will invest six million hours of financial education to 600,000 Latina entrepreneurs.

Through the partnership, Jennifer Lopez hopes to create more equitable opportunities for women entrepreneurs, as she shares that her family were not offered these opportunities. “We've been the valet parkers, people cooking in the kitchen and housekeeping. This is what I grew up with,” she said to Inc.

How will the partnership create opportunities for Latina women?

Through the partnership, Grameen America aims to achieve an inclusive society in which all entrepreneurs, regardless of gender, race or income, have access to fair and affordable financial services to support upward economic mobility. 

The organisation provides ongoing financial education to members and reports microloan repayments to credit bureaus to enable participants to build their financial identities. 

Since its founding in 2008, Grameen America has served over 150,000 women in 23 US cities, distributed US$2.6 billion in loans, and helped create and maintain 157,000 jobs. The organisation’s repayment rate is over 99% and its members have achieved an average credit score of 644 through participation in the programme. The average loan size at Grameen is US$5,000 – first-time loans for new members do not exceed US$2,000. 

Andrea Jung, CEO and president of Grameen says: “Regardless of gender, race, or income, we want to make sure that everyone has that pathway out of poverty and toward financial inclusion in a system that essentially disadvantages communities of colour and disadvantages women from the lion's share of capital access.

Believing that access to business capital is a human right, Grameen intends the loans to help entrepreneurs build business income, which Andrea says is "reflected in the 13-year historical 99.6% repayment rate by these women.”

How will Jennifer Lopez support the scheme?

As National Ambassador of Grameen America, Jennifer Lopez will help Latima business women understand the various pathways to financial independence. She will also work to motivate, promote, and inspire existing Latina business owners by mentoring them and educating them on the importance of credit and asset-building and developing a savings programme to promote financial resilience. 

“Being Latino in this country [America] has always been a matter of pride for me. I am humbled and beyond grateful to partner with Grameen America. We’re building pathways to employment and leadership opportunities. There’s so much strength in this community and we’re harnessing that. This partnership will create equality, inclusivity and opportunity for Latina women in business,” Jennifer Lopez says. 


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