NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, September 8, 2016

It’s the Yangon entrepreneurial dream: a teashop in the suburbs to call your own. But for Ma Thandar, a 39-year-old mother of two, it is just a dream – and one she’s unlikely to be able to attain.

“I want to start a teashop in South Dagon’s low-cost housing estate because there aren’t many shops or teashops there at the moment. I think I can make money, but I don’t have any capital,” she told Frontier.

With no land or gold to use as collateral, a bank loan is out of the question. A microfinance institution would seem like Thandar’s best bet, but government regulations limit their loans to just K5 million. However, on her salary of K150,000, she would qualify only for a much lower amount.