Francisco Arturo Lopez

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Francisco Arturo Lopez by Prisma Honduras, S.A. in Honduras. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 12 months, Prisma Honduras, S.A. will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Francisco Arturo Lopez is working hard from Tegucigalpa, Honduras to repay his Kiva loan. I had the opportunity to speak with Francisco and to learn a little more about his business.

Francisco sells furniture. He has a friend that is in the business of making furniture, so Francicos took pictures of all the products and made a catalog. Francisco has four employees that walk door to door with his catalogs, selling the items. Based on what the clients order, Francisco purchases the furniture from his friend. These pieces are heavy, wooden dressers and bureaus. They are all of very high quality and are very heavy. Most people are unable to purchase the furniture outright, so Francisco offers financing options. He works with each client to create a lay-away plan. His clients make monthly payments to him with 30% annual interest.

Francisco purchases each dresser for about 1500 Lempira, or $79 and sells it for a total of 4900 Lempira after interest, or $260. 400 Lempira, $21, goes to the employee that made the sale. Thus, Francisco makes a profit of about 4500 Lempira or $238 dollars per item. This month was the best month that Franciso has ever had since he started this business 7 years ago- he sold 25 items. During normal months, sales are between 8 and 12 items. With is loan from Prisma, Francisco purchased 12 dressers, which dramatically increased his stock for the Christmas season.

Francisco was very excited about the success of his business, and was eager to talk about his plans. He hopes that following this loan, he can take out a much larger loan and increase the number of employees he has. He enjoys managing the business and keeping track of everyone's payments. He has recently purchased a small property next door to his current tin home. On this piece of land Francisco is slowly building a substantial house for his wife and four children. He hopes to complete the roof this year.

note: There was an error on the original profile. Francisco has four children, not just one. Apologies for the confusion.