What is microfinance?

Opportunity International Australia helps people out of poverty through microfinance. Microfinance includes basic financial services - including small loans, savings accounts, fund transfers and insurance. Alongside non-financial services such as business training, microfinance assists people living in poverty who wouldn’t usually qualify for regular banking services because they have no form of collateral or formal identification. 

Loans as small as $100 help people in poverty start or grow their own small business. This enables them to earn an income so they can afford food, clean water, proper shelter and an education for their children.

Through our local partners in the countries where we work, Opportunity is a provider of socially focused microfinance - we exist to help people out of poverty above all else. To learn about how we measure our impact, please click here.

Here’s how it works…

By helping a mother buy a sewing machine to start a tailoring business or a father buy seeds to plant a vegetable garden, small loans enable people in poverty to earn an income and provide for their families. As each business grows, loans are paid back and lent out again. With 97% of loans repaid, the cycle continues, year after year. Each successful business feeds a family, employs more people and eventually helps empower a whole community.

Microfinance plus

As well as microfinance, we provide people living in poverty with non-financial (community development) services to strengthen their businesses and develop their communities.

Our partners

Opportunity works through local, socially focused microfinance institutions in developing countries. This ensures we understand the needs of people living in poverty in the area and allows us to serve them effectively.



To find out more about how we choose our partners, please click here.
 
To learn about our partnership process, please click here.