Microfinance Firms Look to Retail Lending
While shopping for a brand-new television, 27-year-old Loek Bunhai recently bought a Sony flat-screen at the Sunsimexco retail outlet on Phnom Penh’s Monivong Boulevard for $345. But with a monthly salary of $300 from his job as a microfinance officer in Phnom Penh, Mr. Bunhai was unable to pay for the television outright. So he took out a loan from Japan’s Aeon Microfinance, which opened an office inside the store earlier this year. … While Cambodia’s microcredit industry took off in the early 1990s and saw social-minded organizations start to provide small loans to start up a business, microfinance institutions (MFI) here are beginning to change direction. Like in Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia’s microfinance industry has begun looking toward clients like Mr. Bunhai, who earn more than the minimum wage, but whose spending power is not enough to afford expensive household items like televisions and high-end technology such as smartphones. …
