Chiswick Charity MicroLoan Gets Scottish Funding

Six figure sum will help its work to combat poverty in Malawi

 The Chiswick-based microfinance charity the MicroLoan Foundation has been awarded three years funding from the Scottish Government’s Malawi Development Programme.

The programme will disperse 15 grants with MicroLoan receiving over £350,000 over three years to fund its microfinance and business training programmes in the Central Region of Malawi.

IMF head Christine Lagarde saw Microloan's work in Africa recently

The funding will enable the development of 15,674 profitable businesses, which will generate income and savings and help alleviate poverty and inequality in the poorest rural communities of Central Malawi. The funding announcement coincided with a visit by Malawi’s President, Joyce Banda, and the 200th anniversary of the birth of David Livingstone.

MicroLoan’s presence in Scotland has been developing with a newly formed partnership with the University of Edinburgh, Centre of African Studies and Business School who will publish and disseminate data generated from this newly funded project. Dr Alex Wong who has recently been appointed as Director of MicroLoan Foundation, Scotland, will lead this project.

In the Central Region of Malawi, 41% of the population live in poverty and 52% of people are completely excluded from all financial services.

MicroLoan has worked in Malawi for 10 years focusing on providing small loans and business training to enable clients to establish sustainable enterprises and livelihoods. This project will help MicroLoan support more than 6,000 new clients to develop a business and more than 9,000 existing clients to grow their businesses, facilitating the economic empowerment of over 15,000 women and 78,000 children and dependents, who will benefit from increased spending on education, food and healthcare.

Peter Ryan, CEO and Founder of MicroLoan said “This fantastic support and funding from the Scottish Government will play a vital role in increasing MicroLoan’s outreach in Malawi over the next three years, enabling us to help more women work their own way out of poverty.”

March 19, 2013