In mid-FY23, CARE Australia is launching a pilot program, developing a microfinance digital platform to provide loans to MSMEs in Vietnam and targeting funding from values-aligned Australian businesses as well as individual lenders and donors.
In Asia and the Pacific, small to medium businesses often lack access to formal financing, and therefore, are unable to scale their businesses beyond subsistence level. This particularly affects women who are less likely to be able to access finance or when they are able to access finance are given access to lower levels of finance than men.
This project aims to catalyse everyday Australians and businesses to support micro and small-medium enterprises (MSMEs) in emerging economies to maintain and grow their businesses through the provision of microfinance loans.
The demand for microloans and other microfinancing products is large and growing in the Asia Pacific region, with female-run MSMEs in particular lacking the access to formal financing to sustain or grow their operations.