Borja Moreno de los Rios

The Mastercard Foundation 2014 - 2015

Alumni

Legatum Fellow

From:

Spain

Sector:

Financial Services

Location:

Uganda

Degree:

MBA, Sloan School of Management

The Matoko Fund offers micro-leasing services to low-income women in the rural Yumbe District of northern Uganda. The enterprise is an asset-financing program that leases bicycles to small groups of women who are accountable for each member paying her weekly lease installment. Other micro-finance institutions consider the women unbankable because they do not have collateral or steady incomes. The venture is self-sustained, the default rate is 0%, and participants’ weekly incomes have increased an average of 30%. Women save 20 hours in transit time each week with the bicycles.

The venture offsets the time and monetary expenses of local transportation by giving women access to bicycles, which allow them to travel between their homes and markets. Before the availability of the bicycles, some women walked 30 hours each week. Women have more time in their day and more financial resources available for their businesses and households.

In 2007, Borja volunteered with the Economic Development division at the Spanish International Development Agency in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. He joined the securities division of Goldman Sachs London in 2009, where he advised financial institutions on investment strategies.

With his interest in innovation in emerging economies, Borja moved to Uganda to run a microfinance program, and later joined TechnoServe’s Zimbabwe Impact Investing Program. In March 2013, Borja moved back to Northern Uganda to start Matoko Fund.

Borja holds a five-year degree in Business Administration and Management from the Colegio Universitario de Estudios Financieros (CUNEF) of Madrid, Spain. He is an MBA candidate at the Sloan School of Management.