The UN-managed Livelihoods and Food Security Trust Fund (LIFT) recently funded the Myanma unit of UK-based VisionFund International to offer a microloan product designed for people who have moved within Myanmar from rural areas to work in urban garment factories. Upon the product launch, 160 workers at the ZES factory borrowed up to MMK 500,000 (USD 370) for purposes such as operating a side business, refinancing other loans and paying for family emergencies. The interest rate is 2.5 percent per month, and the average loan amount is 20 percent of the worker’s monthly salary.
Sandar Aung, the Rural Finance and Private Sector Partnership Officer for LIFT, said, “It is not necessarily easy to move to a new city, a new job. Difficulties people encounter include debt, high interest rates, costs of moving and establishing themselves in a new place.”
VisionFund Myanmar was founded in 2015 and serves 170,000 people via 44 service locations as of 2018. VisionFund is an NGO that conducts microfinance activities in 32 countries for World Vision, a US-based Christian relief and development organization. World Vision reports USD 1 billion in 2017 revenue.
LIFT was founded in 2009 “to improve the lives and prospects of smallholder farmers and landless people in rural Myanmar.” It has raised USD 400 million and served 7.2 million people through 2016. Of these, 1.5 million are women accessing microfinance through LIFT-funded institutions.
Sources and Additional Resources:
VisionFund Myanmar press release
http://www.visionfundmyanmar.org/library/client/images/mfi/Myanmar/PRESS%20RELEASE%20Launch%20Of%20New%20Loan%20For%20Migrant%20Factory%20Workers.pdf
World Vision financials
https://www.worldvision.org/about-us/financial-accountability-2#1468438460787-19569590-8c21
LIFT 2017 fact sheet
https://www.lift-fund.org/sites/lift-fund.org/files/publication/Flyer%20EN-Final%20%2824%20OCT%29.pdf
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