As a business unit of Proximity Designs, it is the only fully integrated player for agricultural microfinance in Myanmar, serving smallholder farmers not only with access to finance but also access to technology and knowledge across 14 branches. These services are essential for inclusive development in Myanmar, where 70% of the labor force is employed in agriculture, less than 30% of people have access to formal financial services, and approximately one-fourth of the population lives below the national
poverty line.
Proximity applies a unique “human-centered design” approach to the development of its products, which involves extensive field research and in-depth interviews before new products are introduced. These products—all in local currency and with declining interest rates—are designed to cater to the specific needs of individual farmers so that loan structures match the cash flows of the borrowers. The MFI follows a collective group responsibility methodology, in which Small Lending Groups (SLGs) of four to eight borrowers co-guarantee each others’ loans.
Learn more about Proximity in our blog post here.
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The MFI maintains a strong commitment to its social mission. As part of Espoir’s village banking program, group members receive health and life insurance, access to a network of medical centers, and bi-weekly education sessions from loan officers on topics ranging from financial literacy to healthy living. In November 2017, MCE approved a 36-month loan of $1,200,000 for Espoir, MCE’s sixth loan to Espoir since 2006.
Espoir is an NGO originally formed as the village banking program of Project HOPE in Ecuador. Since 2002, Espoir has been an independent NGO, solely responsible for running its microfinance operations. Its primary product is its village banking loan (70% of portfolio). Espoir also offers a variety of individual loans for home improvements, family emergencies and school attendance.
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Naasakle currently sources from more than 1,500 women pickers in the Damongo region of Northern Ghana, providing financial literacy training, technical assistance, savings programs, and local warehousing facilities for women pickers to store their shea nuts until market prices are higher.
Naasakle currently employs 45 people, 35 of whom are located in Damongo, where formal employment opportunities are scarce. The company’s employees also receive health insurance and retirement contributions. In addition, Naasakle’s operations benefit the environment by promoting the upkeep of the region’s shea trees, which often provide the only tree-cover across an area that is vulnerable to desertification.
Learn more about Naasakle in our blog post here.
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The name Fonkoze is an acronym for the Haitian Creole phrase “Fondasyon Kole Zepòl” meaning “Shoulder-to-Shoulder Foundation.” Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and ranks #158 on the UN’s Human Development Indicators. Despite the incredibly difficult operating environment in Haiti, as of 2014, Fonkoze has over 53,000 borrowers and 260,000 savers. It has exhibited a deep commitment to social performance by offering a wide range of products, in combination with business education, to very poor women in both urban and rural areas in the highly underserved Haitian market. Visit Fonkoze’s website.
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
Myrtha lives in Flon, a rural town outside of Leyogàn. Her house collapsed in the 2010 earthquake, causing her to lose all the merchandise she had been selling from her home. Unable to make ends meet, Myrtha says that Fonkoze came into her life at the right time. “After the earthquake, I wasn’t doing anything, but Fonkoze taught me how to live again.”
Myrtha is the sole breadwinner in her family, as her husband cannot find work. As of 2013, three years after the earthquake, they continue to live in a tent city with their two children. Myrtha says that living in the tent city has been difficult, especially during the rainy season.
Myrtha is making progress in her life, however. “Fonkoze taught me how to make a small amount of money multiply,” Myrtha says. Her credit has since increased steadily to $70. She uses the loans from Fonkoze to fund a business selling fried foods and hot plates in her neighborhood. Myrtha is determined to set her children up for success. “I make a living selling rice. I don’t want my kids to do the same. I would love for them to become an engineer or a doctor.”
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
A Fonkoze member for eleven years, Fason Jean-Baptiste sells pepe, secondhand clothing that Haitian vendors resell in the local market. She buys her merchandise in Port-au-Prince and then resells it in the market in Mirogwan.
“Before Fonkoze’s Alfa class, I didn’t know to read at all. I didn’t know how to write. I didn’t know how to manage my profits. I didn’t know anything,” Fason says.
Fason started in the first chapter of Alfa bon, Fonkoze’s recently redesigned book to engage Solidarity clients in learning basic literacy skills. “Now I can write my name and my children’s names,” she says.
Fason has twelve children, the youngest of whom is thirteen. While seven of them have left the house, five are still in school and continue to live with Fason. “I feel proud now because I had five educated children and I couldn’t even write my name. Now I can, thanks to Alfa bon.”
Now Fason has moved on to Fonkoze’s Business Skills class, which provides Solidarity clients with training to enable them to improve their commerce. “The class teaches me how to buy and resell—how much I should spend to make a profit. It has really helped me; now it’s not the same thing at all.”
“I’m really, really, really happy,” she says.
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CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
One Transcapital client has a stall in the largest market of the capital, Ulaanbaatar, and sells coverings for people to use on their shelters. He buys the fabric in China and tailors it in his shop, which employs three people. Each cover sells for about $35 a piece. He has participated in three loans from Transcapital.
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
A couple, on their third loan with Transcapital, built a butchery business called Mak Mak that provides sheep meat to about 90 markets in Ulaanbaatar. The couple started by themselves in their own house; soon they were able to rent a separate house and build a cold storage facility with four employees. They have leveraged their brand by preparing packaged meat for retail shops and are now expanding into other prepared packaged foods. The profits from the business have allowed them to send their three children to the university and construct a building to house their business.
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EcoZoom designs and manufactures two main product lines — solar powered lamps and portable, clean-burning cookstoves. As EcoZoom’s goal is to serve the base of the pyramid, the company strives to maintain low operating costs in order to provide affordable, high-value energy solutions that benefit both consumers and the environment. Consequently, the company’s products are cheaper and more efficient than the competition in terms of fuel consumption (for cookstoves) and number of hours per charge (for solar lamps).
Read more about EcoZoom in our blog post here.
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IMON was one of MCE’s first loan recipients, and maintains its strong commitment to alleviating poverty by serving the country’s most vulnerable populations through a variety of financial products and services, including traditional loans, education and green loans, savings accounts, remittance transfers, and mobile banking. IMON complements these offerings with non-financial services as well, including financial literacy training, technical assistance, and energy efficiency consultation. In October 2017, MCE approved a 36-month loan of $500,000 for IMON, its seventh loan since 2006. The loan was disbursed in February 2018.
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Given its affiliation with World Vision, which has operated in Sri Lanka since 1977, VF Lanka has a stronger social focus than most MFIs in the country. This social focus is apparent through their efforts to educate their clients and provide a better future for women and children. Almost all of VF Lanka’s clients are women, borrowing very small amounts (an average of US$245), predominantly for subsistence agriculture and commerce activities. The organization requires its clients to attend monthly group meetings, in which they receive basic education on business management, financial literacy, and how to handle problems specific to their operations. In order to measure its social impact, VF Lanka uses the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI). VF Lanka’s strong social approach is further evident in its low client attrition rate (15% per year) and its low employee turnover (6% per year).
Read our Portfolio Spotlight on VF Lanka for more information: http://www.mcesocap.org/2016/10/18/company-spotlight-vision-fund-lanka/
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Nearly 1.2 billion people lack access to electricity, while 2.7 billion are without clean cooking facilities. This widespread energy poverty impedes social and economic growth, disproportionately affecting women and children in rural areas. MEC increases access to clean energy for poor, rural consumers who would otherwise face significant obstacles to obtain such products. In doing so, MEC also promotes a wide range of positive social and environmental outcomes, including improvements in health, education, and economic status, as well as reduced carbon emissions and deforestation. Since its inception, MEC has reached over 3.5 million people through its activities in India, Kenya, and Mongolia.
Learn more on MEC’s website here.
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Venture South’s core product is the working capital loan, provided to SMEs with active liquidity needs. Venture South was founded to serve SME clients driving social impact, including empowering women, out-of-school youth, the physically challenged, minorities, and indigenous people. For example, one client is a massage parlor that only employs blind massage therapists. As of the end of 2012, Venture South’s borrowers had a total of 2,672 employees, 37% of whom were women.
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
With a loan and support from NPFC, a couple in their early 30s, founded an organic soap company called Mir and Ryvi that employs out-of-school youth. Mir and Ryvi also offers English lessons to its 12 employees (up from two employees in one year).
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DLO builds and operates local, community-scale water treatment centers (i.e. water kiosks) in rural and peri-urban areas throughout Haiti. These kiosks provide safe purified drinking water (DLO’s brand, “Ovive”) to low-income Haitians at a price below the lowest priced alternative for treated water. DLO’s kiosks also act as distribution points for a variety of essential consumer goods, such as soap, toilet paper, and powdered milk, which are usually unavailable to these populations. This last-mile distribution network improves the value chain for micro-businesses and consumers in underserved areas, giving hard-to-serve communities access to basic needs consumer goods.
Read more about DLO in our blog post here.
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Tolaro is the first factory in Africa to receive the African Cashew Alliance quality seal (an industry-accepted mark that confirms compliance with internationally recognized standards of quality, food safety and social and labor standards). Tolaro employs more than 400 Beninese men and women with formal salaried jobs and sources its cashew from over 7,000 smallholder farmers in the region, for whom the business also provides technical training to increase cashew yields and farmers’ incomes.
Tolaro’s impact is evident across several dimensions: 1) by providing expanded market access to local farmers, 2) by creating local, salaried employment in a rural area, 3) by contributing to additional outcomes such as improved food security and childhood education, and 4) by generating added value for the Beninese economy.
MCE’s first loan to Tolaro in 2017 was highly catalytic as it enabled Tolaro to grow its business, expand its operations, and become a more bankable borrower. In 2018, MCE disbursed two new loans for a total of US$600K. One of these loans has a 12-month duration, while the other is longer-term (3 years) in order to equip Tolaro with more structural and permanent funding.
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