Many immigrants come to work in the US, and when they do, they usually leave family behind. Often, their primary objective is to make money and provide for their families back home. Some companies - like the Mexico-based multinational cement giant CEMEX - are taking advantage of this situation and are starting to productize remittances. Instead of sending cash to their families back home, immigrants using a program called Construmex send aid in the form of housing materials.

Productizing remittances is a secure way for workers abroad to provide what they think its priority to their families. Some may recall a post by Thamel dot Com founder Bal Joshi about this very subject. We recently covered a news story on NextBillion talking about CEMEX’s Construmex program:

Money transfers can be expensive, and family members back home frequently spend the money on other things. And many immigrants don't know how much cement to buy or how to build a roof, so their hard-earned savings often are wasted. That's where Construmex comes in: Its architects help clients design home plans and calculate how much material to deliver and at what time intervals. The company also finances the purchase of the construction materials.

In my opinion, this system is very intelligent, because, after all, it is the money of the person who is sending it and this system allows him to decide how it is spent. It ensures that the people back home get what he wants them to get - in the case of Construmex, a house.

According to Business Week, in two years, Monterrey-based Construmex has helped 4,500 migrants living in the U.S. build homes or small businesses in Mexico. This year it expects $3.8 million in revenue, a mere hint of the potential. "We're certain that there's a very large, unsatisfied demand out there," says Hector Ureta, CEMEX’s director for low-income programs. The company's studies show that 58% of Mexican migrants to the U.S. intend to build in their home towns.

Of course this is not CEMEX’s first foray into the BOP space; they already have a program in Mexico targeting the BOP called Patrimonio Hoy.

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