Social investment fund to help female entrepreneurs launched

A new social investment fund was launched by the Co-operative and CARE International UK today (August 17th).

The main aim of the fund is that Brits with private wealth invest a small amount of money into the fund, which will then be lent to small scale entrepreneurs running their own businesses in developing countries, with the majority of these being women.

Rather than making a one-off donation, people are encouraged to lend money to an entrepreneur, who will then repay the lender from the income of their growing business.

When the money has been returned, the lender can keep the money or loan it to someone else.

The two firms hope to raise a social investment fund worth £1.5 million by the end of 2012 and will be running the scheme for at least three years.

Paul Monaghan, head of social goals at the Co-operative, said: " Around three quarters of the entrepreneurs receiving loans are women and studies have shown that women are the ‘change' agents of the family - spending a greater percentage of their income on the welfare of their households than men."

A recent report by New Social Enterprises found that one in ten start-ups in the UK gain their income from private sector social investment.
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