Melissa Cheong ’10

Melissa Cheong ’10 interned at Women’s World Banking (WWB), an organization that provides support, training, and access to information to a global network of 40 microfinance institutions and banks in 28 countries. These network members provide credit and other financial services directly to 20 million poor entrepreneurs, 74 percent of which are women. While at WWB, Melissa was responsible for conducting research on prospective new markets for the organization’s pilot owner/operator Microfinance Institution (MFI) strategy for underserved microfinance markets. Her research will be used to present potential points of market entry to the board, which has approved the creation of up to 70 new MFIs over the next 10 years.

<< Read About More Students

Journal #1

Women’s World Banking (WWB) has more than three decades of experience helping to build the capacity and outreach of microfinance institutions (MFIs) that share the common goal of providing microfinance products to low-income people, especially women. The WWB network presently consists of 40 MFIs in 28 countries, reaching more than 23 million clients, 75 percent of whom are women. At the same time, WWB is seeking to translate the success of its network into a group of WWB owner-operated MFIs that will extend the reach and deepen the impact of microfinance by designing and providing appropriate products and services. WWB is currently seeking to create a high impact, double bottom line social enterprise of seven to 10 MFIs to be set up globally throughout the coming decade. 

I am extremely excited about the opportunity to work with WWB. I have a high level of interest in social impact investing, and the project will allow me to focus on Sub Saharan Africa, a region in which I have long been interested. It will also allow me to gain firsthand exposure to the microfinance industry by working with an NGO that has been an influential leader in the space for more than 30 years. WWB has had a successful footprint in Africa through its work to date. However, with more than 500 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa living on less than $2 a day, and with fewer than 15 percent of Africans with access to financial products, Sub-Saharan Africa is a priority area for the organization.

My responsibilities will be divided into two main phases. In the first phase, I will be responsible for conducting an overall analysis on the opportunity for HoldCo in Sub Saharan African (SSA) markets. This will entail conducting an overview of the countries that comprise this region including an analysis of population size, poverty level, gender, informal economy, financial sector, regulatory and investment climate, and the microfinance sector. The second phase will entail analyzing two to three markets in extensive detail to determine the markets most opportune for WWB entry against criteria that will need to be developed. In addition to this work, I will be assisting the WWB in identifying prospective social investors to fund the initiative, while also providing input on the financial model.