Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, and a verifiable credit history. It is designed to support entrepreneurship and alleviate poverty. Many recipients are illiterate, and therefore unable to complete paperwork required to get conventional loans. As of 2009 an estimated 74 million people held microloans that totaled US$38 billion. Grameen Bank reports that repayment success rates are between 95 and 98 percent. The first economist who had invented the idea of micro loans was Jonathan Swift I the 1720’s Microcredit is part of microfinance, which provides a wider range of financial services, especially savings accounts, to the poor. Modern microcredit is generally considered to have originated with the Grameen Bank founded in Bangladesh in 1983. Many traditional banks subsequently introduced microcredit despite initial misgivings. The United Nations declared 2005 the International Year of Microcredit. As of 2012, microcredit is widely used in developing countries and is presented as having "enormous potential as a tool for poverty alleviation." Microcredit is a tool that can possibly be helpful to reduce feminization of poverty in developing countries.
Microfinance is a category of financial services targeting individuals and small businesses who lack access to conventional banking and related services. Microfinance includes microcredit, the provision of small loans to poor clients; savings and checking accounts; microinsurance; and payment systems, among other services. Microfinance services are designed to reach excluded customers, usually poorer population segments, possibly socially marginalized, or geographically more isolated, and to help them become self-sufficient. ID Ghana is an example of a microfinance institution.
Mercy Corps is a global non-governmental, humanitarian aid organization operating in transitional contexts that have undergone, or have been undergoing, various forms of economic, environmental, social and political instabilities. The organization claims to have assisted more than 220 million people survive humanitarian conflicts, seek improvements in livelihoods, and deliver durable development to their communities.
Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM) is a microfinancing agency of the Aga Khan Development Network.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an All India Financial Institution (AIFI) and an apex Regulatory Body for overall supervision of Regional Rural Banks, State Cooperative Banks and District Central Cooperative Banks in India. It was established under the NABARD Act 1981 passed by the Parliament of India. It is fully owned by the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the Ministry of Finance.
Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the apex regulatory body for overall licensing and regulation of micro, small and medium enterprise finance companies in India. It is under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance, Government of India headquartered at Lucknow and having its offices all over the country.The SIDBI was established on April 2, 1990, by Government of India, as a wholly owned subsidiary of IDBI Bank. It was delinked from IDBI w.e.f. March 27, 2000. Its purpose is to provide refinance facilities to banks and financial institutions and engage in term lending and working capital finance to industries, and serves as the principal financial institution in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector. SIDBI also coordinates the functions of institutions engaged in similar activities. It was established in 1990, through an Act of Parliament.
BASIX is an institution concerning the promotion of livelihood established in 1996 in India. It is headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana.
Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited or BFIL is a banking & finance company (NBFC), licensed by the Reserve Bank of India. It was founded in 1997 by Vikram Akula, who served as its executive chair until working. The company's mission is to provide financial services to the poor under the premise that providing financial service to poor borrowers helps to alleviate poverty. In 2011, the company operated across 11 Indian states.
Vijay Mahajan is the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies.
A self-help group is a financial intermediary committee usually composed of 12 to 25 local women between the ages of 18 and 50. Most self-help groups are in India, though they can be found in other countries, especially in South Asia and Southeast Asia. A SHG is generally a group of people who work on daily wages who form a loose grouping or union. Money is collected from those who are able to donate and given to members in need.
Financial inclusion is the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to a process by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services which include banking, loan, equity, and insurance products. It is a path to enhance inclusiveness in economic growth by enabling the unbanked population to access the means for savings, investment, and insurance towards improving household income and reducing income inequality
Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) is a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956 of India, engaged in the business of loans and advances, acquisition of shares, stock, bonds, hire-purchase insurance business or chit-fund business, but does not include any institution whose principal business is that of agriculture, industrial activity, purchase or sale of any goods or providing any services and sale/purchase/construction of immovable property.
Fonkoze is Haiti's largest microfinance institution serving the poor in Haiti, with 44 branches located throughout the country.
Women's World Banking is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to women's economic empowerment through financial inclusion.
Poverty in Sri Lanka is 31% of the population as of June 8, 2023 Sri Lanka's life expectancy and literacy rate are nearly on par with those of developed countries, and even top the rankings for the South Asia region. While all these indicate that Sri Lanka should be experiencing a high standard of living, until recently it has only ranked in the medium category of the Human Development Index (HDI). This is despite the fact that Sri Lanka has been experiencing moderate growth in its GDP averaging 5.5 per annum between 2006 and 2009. One of the reasons is due to its relatively low GDP per capital;. The Sri Lankan government has been successful in reducing poverty from 15.2% on 2006 to 8.9% in 2010, urban poverty was reduced from 6.7 to 5.3% while rural poverty was reduced from 15.7 to 9.5%, and the nation has made significant progress towards achieving Millennium Development Goals on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.
The SIDBI foundation for Microcredit (SFMC)
Bandhan Bank Ltd. is a banking and financial services company, headquartered in Kolkata. Bandhan Bank is present in 35 out of 36 states and union territories of India, with 6,250 banking outlets and 3.26 crore customers. Having received the universal banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India, Bandhan Bank started operations on August 23, 2015, with 501 branches, 50 ATMs and 2,022 Banking Units (BUs). The Bank has mobilised deposits of ₹1,17,422 crore and its total advances stand at ₹1,15,940 crore as of December 31, 2023.
Dr. Sailendra Narain is a development finance specialist born in Nawadah, Bihar Province, India. For over 40 years, Narain has been a pioneer in developing the global SME sector. His specialities include: designing policy frameworks for SME Growth, establishing SME financing programs in banking and development financial institutions, and capacity building for SMEs with a focus on Entrepreneurship.
Kashf Foundation is a non-profit organization, founded by Roshaneh Zafar in 1996. Kashf is regarded as the first microfinance institution (MFI) of Pakistan that uses village banking methodology in microcredit to alleviate poverty by providing affordable financial and non-financial services to low income households - particularly for women, to build their capacity and enhance their economic role. With headquarters in Lahore, Punjab, Kashf have regional offices in five major cities and over 200 branches across Pakistan.
LifeBank is a rural bank based in Iloilo, Philippines. It started operations on March 21, 1970 in Maasin, Iloilo as Rural Bank of Maasin. It is divided into two corporate arms each with its own designated finance and banking services functions: the LifeBank RB and LifeBank MFI. As of 2021, it has a total of 4 branches and 44 branch-lite units (BLU) under LifeBank - a Rural Bank in Western Visayas and 536 branches all over the Philippines under LifeBank MFI, an NGO microfinance arm of LifeBank.
