Zigway: Achieving social impact through nanofinance

This case study has been created from the Finance for the Future Awards. This entry was a finalist in in the ‘Building sustainable financial products’ category.

ZigWay is a fintech social enterprise, piloting a platform that provides microfinance to low-income families in Myanmar. The company uses a mobile app to offer cheap, flexible loans from US$10, providing a safe alternative to local loan sharks. The ‘nano loan’ app was built to give underserved populations access to finance that helps them to avoid debt traps. ZigWay uses innovative approaches and technology, including psychometric testing, to assess creditworthiness so that it can lend to low-income customers who don’t have credit records.

‘The judges were inspired by the social impact of ZigWay. As an innovative start-up it makes affordable finance more accessible to a large proportion of the population of Myanmar, particularly women on low incomes.’

Finance for the Future Awards judges