Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically lack collateral, steady employment, or 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.
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.
Opportunity International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that is working to end global poverty by creating and sustaining jobs. Through a network of 47 program and support partners, Opportunity provides small business loans, savings, insurance and training to more than 14 million people in the developing world. It has clients in more than 20 countries and works with fundraising partners in the United States, Australia, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom. Opportunity International has 501(c)(3) status as a tax-exempt charitable organization in the United States of America under the US Internal Revenue Code.
Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM) is a microfinancing agency of the Aga Khan Development Network.
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. 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 on 2 April 1990, through an Act of Parliament. It is headquartered in Lucknow. SIDBI is one of the four All India Financial Institutions regulated and supervised by the Reserve Bank of India; other three are India Exim Bank, NABARD and NHB. But recently NHB came under government control by taking more than 51% stake. They play a statutory role in the financial markets through credit extension and refinancing operation activities and cater to the long-term financing needs of the industrial sector.
LAPO is a Nigerian organisation with a microfinance bank dedicated to self-employment through microfinance and an NGO, a non-governmental, non-profit community development organization focused on the empowerment of the poor and the vulnerable.
Micro financing in Tanzania started in 1995 with SACCOS and NGOs. It has since then contributed to the increasing success of international micro financing. Microfinance stills remains a relatively new in Tanzania since it has not penetrated yet. Since 1995, microfinance has been linked to poverty alleviation programs and women. The government made efforts to ensure commercial banks have continued to provide financial support to the small entrepreneurial business. However a microfinance National Policy was implemented in 2002 to encourage and support microfinances in the country. Since the implementation, micro financing was officially launched and recognized as a poverty alleviation tool. Due to its increase exposure and use in the nation, commercial banks have developed interests in to offer microfinance. There are various microfinance banks that functions as supporting institutions in the country that usually provide microfinance services. These may include the CRDB, National Microfinance Bank, and AKIBA. However there are also other few banks that are concerned with micro financing in Tanzania such as the PRIDE and SEDA, Tanzania Postal Bank and FINCA. Community and small banks have also expressed interest in the same including the NGOs and other non-profit organizations.
Bharat Financial Inclusion LimitedBFIL 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 November 2011. The company's mission is to provide financial services to the poor under the premise that providing financial services to poor borrowers helps to alleviate poverty. In 2013, the company operated across 17 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.
Financial inclusion is defined as 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. These include banking, loan, equity, and insurance products. Financial inclusion efforts typically target those who are unbanked and underbanked, and directs sustainable financial services to them. Financial inclusion is understood to go beyond merely opening a bank account. It is possible for banked individuals to be excluded from financial services. Having more inclusive financial systems has been linked to stronger and more sustainable economic growth and development and thus achieving financial inclusion has become a priority for many countries across the globe.
A 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 and ultra-poor in Haiti, with 44 branches located throughout the country. The name Fonkoze is an acronym for the Haitian Creole phrase "Fondasyon Kole Zepòl" meaning "Shoulder-to-Shoulder Foundation." Its mission is to empower Haitians, primarily women, with financial and development services to lift themselves out of poverty. Fonkoze's development programs include Adult Education, Ultra-Poverty Alleviation and Boutik Sante, a health program designed to create a new business opportunity for Fonkoze's existing clients while also providing much-needed health products, services and education to rural communities throughout the country. Fonkoze is a family of three organizations working together to achieve its mission:
- Fonkoze Foundation: a Haitian non-profit which provides development services such as health education, literacy and business skills training to Fonkoze's microfinance clients and to ultra-poor families.
- Fonkoze Financial Services: a Haitian microfinance company with a double bottom line: to lift families and communities out of poverty while operating in a financially self‐sustaining manner.
- Fonkoze USA, a 501(c)(3) non-profit which provides technical, communications and fundraising support in the US for its Haitian partners.
Women's World Banking is a nonprofit organization that provides strategic support, technical assistance and information to a global network of 55 independent microfinance institutions (MFIs) and banks that offer credit and other financial services to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world, with a particular focus on women. The Women's World Banking network serves 24 million micro-entrepreneurs in 32 countries worldwide, of which 80 percent are women. It is the largest global network of microfinance institutions and banks in terms of number of clients, and the only one that explicitly designates poor women as the focus of its mission.
The SIDBI foundation for Microcredit (SFMC)
Microfinance Institutions Network is an association for the microfinance sector in India. Its member organizations constitute the leading microfinance institutions in the country.
Bandhan Bank Ltd. is an Indian banking and financial services company, headquartered in Kolkata, West Bengal. Bandhan Bank is present in 34 out of 36 states and union territories of India, with 5,596 banking outlets and more than 2.35 crore customers.
Svatantra Microfin Svatantra, which means freedom in Hindi, is a mid-size Indian microfinance organisation based in Mumbai. Since receiving a license from the Reserve Bank of India in 2013, Svatantra has provided financial and non-financial solutions to encourage entrepreneurship in rural areas, primarily amongst women.
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 has regional offices in five major cities and over 200 branches across the Pakistan.
LifeBank 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 2020, it has a total of 35 branches and branch-lite units (BLU) under LifeBank - a Rural Bank in Western Visayas and 491 branches all over the Philippines under LifeBank MFI, an NGO microfinance arm of LifeBank.
