A $5 million Overseas Private Investment Corp. loan to Early Dawn Microfinance Co. will boost the firm’s lending to low-income women entrepreneurs.
Early Dawn is a partnership of Save the Children, Accion, Triodos Bank, and Dutch development bank FMO and serves small businesses in poor parts of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.
It has provided more than $12 million in loans to 50,000 borrowers since 2002. OPIC’s capital aims to help Dawn reach 150,000 borrowers by 2019.
The U.S. agency has invested in more than 200 microfinance institutions worldwide.
Myanmar has the lowest level of access to financial services in its region of Asia; only 23 percent of adults have a bank account, according to the IMF and World Bank.
