A new ethical investment cooperative launched in the UK last week is hoping to attract investments for small-scale businesses in developing countries.

The ecumenically-based Oikocredit serves to promote justice worldwide by giving disadvantaged people loans that allow them to set up small businesses and work their way out of poverty.

It has invested in projects in more than 70 developing countries and already has many investors from across Europe and North America.

Patrick Hynes, Oikocredit’s UK representative, said women accounted for 85 per cent of the 17 million people the cooperative is currently enabling.

“Women can be empowered by access to financial services and in turn help to enrich the lives of their families and also communities in which they live,” he said.

Hynes said the cooperative made it possible for individuals and organisations to make a social as well as financial return on their investments.

“Investing say £4,000 in Oikocredit, with the typical dividend of two per cent per year, would give the investor £80 per year but gives the person receiving a loan a new independence,” he said.

One of the companies Oikocredit invests in is Divine Chocolate, a fair-trade chocolate company owned by farmers in Ghana.

Divine Chocolate Managing Director Sophi Tranchell said the cooperative was giving support to people in innovative ways.

“Oikocredit invests in vital services for communities and individuals all over the world, giving them a first step toward being financially independent,” she said.