Blue Financial Services has received a boost after US organisation Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) granted it a $70m loan to help finance lending to small businesses.

The loan is part of a strategy announced earlier this year by OPIC – which helps US businesses make private sector investments outside of the country – to grant $250m in loans to help assist South African small businesses. 

"We anticipate that this new facility would result in a significant number of loans to urban and rural enterprises, with more than half the borrowers being women," said Blue’s CEO Dave van Niekerk.

OPIC previously guaranteed a $10m loan from World Business Capital to Blue earlier this year, in order to help the company expand its operations in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.