2026 Alumni Charity Update: ADC Microfinance

Thank you to all One Percent Collective donors who continue to support us. Your donations help us provide capital and support to Zozam Microfinance (ZMF) in Myanmar, which puts that funding to work through small, fairly priced loans to local entrepreneurs, mostly women, in Kalay Township.

Zozam’s local staff meet with applicants and help them develop business plans before providing loans to support their businesses.

After several very hard years, this year felt different: a year of progress, renewal and growth. Here’s what you helped make happen.

A big milestone: our Manaaki project is complete

In December 2025, ADC and ZMF completed the Manaaki project, a four-and-a-half-year partnership supported by the New Zealand Government through the Manaaki Fund. For every NZ$1 from ADC supporters, the Government added NZ$3, and the full NZ$810,000 was put to work. Our final report went to the New Zealand Government earlier this year.

Against the odds

Months before the project began, the military took power. Then came COVID-19. Myanmar’s blacklisting by the global financial watchdog (FATF) blocked money transfers for three years, and the kyat lost more than half its value against the NZ dollar. ZMF kept lending anyway.

What your support achieved

• Stayed open when others left. ZMF was the only licensed microfinance provider to keep serving Kalay Township (around 73,000 households) through the whole crisis, closing only briefly for COVID-19 or local violence.
• Fair loans for women in business. 1,212 loans (against a target of 1,000) to women running fruit stalls, market shops, tea shops, food businesses, small workshops and repair services.
• Real savings for families. Moneylenders in Kalay charge 100 to 200% a year. A typical ZMF loan saves a family about NZ$180 to NZ$400 a year in interest.
• Clients trust ZMF and keep coming back. Over 90% of borrowers are on repeat loans. 38% are on their 10th loan or more, and some have repaid 15 in a row.
• Loans repaid, even in hard times. 93% of loans were repaid on time, and the share of loans more than 30 days late fell from about 22% to just 1.5%.
• From paper to the cloud. Every client record and loan is now digital. Regulatory reporting dropped from two weeks to one day, the office kept running during closures, and client data is stored securely off-site.
• A stronger, women-led organisation. ZMF came through the sudden death of its founding CEO in 2022 with a supported handover. It is now led by founding member Manpi, women make up half its management team, and its social performance score (how well it looks after clients and staff) has more than tripled, from 13% to 46%.

This year in Kalay

Uncertainty continues across Myanmar, but Kalay has been relatively stable. ZMF has opened every week, the team is safe and well, and loans are going out.

Other microfinance providers have started to return, a sign of a healthier local economy. With money flowing again, ZMF has been lending out the last of the project’s loan capital and now covers close to all of its running costs from its own income, up from 72% early in 2025.

Every loan starts with learning

Before any loan is made, every new client joins an onboarding session at ZMF’s Kalay office. Loan officers explain interest, repayment schedules and client rights in plain terms, and returning clients often sit in to share what they have learned.

For many women, it is their first time dealing with a formal financial institution. ZMF chooses informed borrowing over fast growth, and it shows: repayments are strong and there are no signs of clients taking on more debt than they can manage.

What’s next

More than 500 qualified clients are waiting for a loan, and ZMF gets 5 to 10 new enquiries every day. The systems, staff and policies are in place to grow, and every repaid loan is lent out again.

Thank you. Your monthly gift through One Percent Collective keeps working: every loan that is repaid is lent again to the next woman on the waiting list.

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Words and images supplied by ADC Microfinance