Thinking Ahead: Securitization Structure Helps to Democratise Technical and Medical Education in Brazil

Our Brazilian team launched a partnership that doesn’t only look at short-term needs but prepares Brazil for an uncertain future. The partnership between Yunus Social Business, Provi, Augme Capital and VERT will help to promote skilled labour - including medicine courses - and finance students from all backgrounds to become the skilled workforce of tomorrow.

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While the struggle with COVID-19 wages on, our team in Brazil are thinking long-term as well as short-term. Adequately skilling a workforce is vital to future-proof our societies, but in Brazil we face a lack of skilled labour. When paired with the current youth unemployment crisis - it’s a terrible waste of talented, young people.

While in developed countries, technical professions are highly valued, in Brazil there is still a greater focus on university careers. The more technical professions and entrepreneurial career tracks are still relevant, but they are not yet explored to their full potential. There is a lack of means for students, especially those in the lower classes, to access courses that train them with technical skills or as entrepreneurs.  The high costs involved with tuition and housing still present a barrier.

With this in mind, Provi has created a credit structure that offers financial support to the poorest populations, and medical students who need financial help. The funding allows students to devote themselves fully to courses without working all hours on the side to support themselves. It provides a chance to level the playing field for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. To expand this innovative solution, Provi, in partnership with Yunus Social Business Brazil, Augme Capital and VERT, carried out a securitization structure, common in the traditional capital markets. The credit originated by Provi was packaged, or ‘securitized’, in the language of the capital market, by VERT and offered, in the form of debentures, to investors. This type of funding releases more capital to fund the vital low-interest loans needed to fund an education.  

The different players bring different expertise to the partnership, Augme Capital brings its knowledge of the resource management market and Yunus Social Business uses our expertise in the impact investing space, advising to achieve the greatest possible social impact. We are united in our belief that money and financial tools should always play a role in transforming society.

The partnership mobilises a social impact not only in the short and medium-term, but that prepares us as a country for the needs of the future. Structuring the tools and technologies for a market that favours the improvement of our society.