NEWS RELEASE
16th April 2009
99% of all sub-prime loans are repaid in full
...in Malawi in Africa
Former financial executive to explain why sub-prime loans could be one of the best
financial innovations devised at the MicroLoan Foundation Australia (MLFA) Awareness
Day on Thursday 30th April in Martin Place, Sydney.
At the Awareness Day (11.30am-2.30pm at the Amphitheatre in Martin Place), Clive Hughes,
former CEO of a Sydney property company, will explain the brilliant concept of micro loans, which
are made to the poorest of the poor who have no income, no assets and no job, (so called “NINJA”
loans) and how 99% of all MicroLoan Foundation loans are repaid in full with interest.
MLFA provides small loans (otherwise known as microloans), basic business training and
continuing guidance to groups of women in Malawi. They launched in August last year and are
supported by world patron, Sir Bob Geldof, and Australian patron, Simon Tedeschi.
These loans are made to entrepreneurial, but poor, women who have the ability and motivation to
make modest amounts of money so as to improve their lives. They use their small profits to put an
extra meal on their families’ table, school their children or even build their first house.
At the Awareness Day Clive will introduce MLFA, and take you on a journey to one of the poorest
yet most beautiful and friendliest countries in the world – Malawi. He will describe what MLFA has
done there and what it will be doing in the future. Finally he will point out that, far from being a high
risk category, poor borrowers are some of the most reliable clients a financial institution can have.
Clive explains
“MLFA has a “different approach to charity”, indeed it is the charity that doesn’t give, it merely
lends a tool to the poor that the rich take for granted.
If you believe that a poor illiterate black woman in Malawi could be just as capable and motivated
in her local business world, as a rich, highly qualified, white man in his western business world,
you will understand why micro loans work. Mind you given how clever the “professionals” in Wall
Street have been over the last few years it might be unfair to woman in Africa to make such a
comparison!”
(ends)
About MicroLoan Foundation (MLF)
MicroLoan Foundation, established in the UK in 2002, provides small loans (otherwise known as
microloans), basic business training and continuing guidance to groups of women in sub-Saharan Africa.
This enables them to develop self-sustainable livelihoods, feed, clothe and educate their families, and work
their way out of the poverty trap. We now have fifteen offices in Malawi and have made microloans to over
12,500 women. For more information on MLF in Australia go to www.microloanfoundation.org.au.
Patrons: Sir Bob Geldof KBE (world); Simon Tedeschi (Australia)
MLFA is also calling for volunteers to help out on the day as pamphlet distributors (in half hour
blocks). Please contact Brian Keen on 0417 211366.
For more information, or to arrange interviews with Clive Hughes or MLFA Chairman Brian Keen
please contact David Bateson on 07 3901 1055 / 0402 332287.
NEWS 
