We promote the development of businesses in rural Malawi, one of the poorer countries in the world. The aim is not to create businesses as such, but to develop people who can act as wealth-generators and leaders in their own communities.

Although we depend on sponsors for injections of cash to make this process work, the whole is set up as a business proposition, particularly at the point at which money is handed to budding business people. Our opinion is that half a century of handouts in Africa has had a debilitating effect, and that the knowledge and exercise of good business practice is an essential part of economic development. In short, our sponsors’ money goes to end-users as a loan that they must repay.

We make the whole process transparent. One of the purposes of this website is to enable sponsors to track our operations in detail, and to assure themselves that the money is not being wasted or misdirected. Each new borrower agrees to have outline details of their business plan and business progress posted on the website. We aim to match sponsors with individual micro-projects. Sponsors will be able to follow their own projects in more detail.

Transparency is delivered in three key ways:

• Details of individual projects
• Posting management and annual accounts on this website
• Working towards a formal accountability audit.

Our name is a reference to Prahalad’s seminal work “Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid” which deals with the problems of engaging the world’s poor (80% of the human race) in the modern economy.