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 nearly US$40 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 The Very Reverend Jonathan Swift in 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 by their current Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus. 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 consists 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.
Garo H. Armen is an American-Armenian scientist. He is the founder and chairman of the Children of Armenia Fund (COAF), as well as co-founder and CEO of Agenus, Inc.
The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is an All India Financial Institution (AIFI) and an apex Supervisory 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 Government of India and functions under the Department of Financial Services (DFS) under the Ministry of Finance.
Concern Worldwide is Ireland's largest aid and humanitarian agency. Since its foundation in 1968 it has worked in 50 countries. According to its latest annual report, Concern helped 28.6 million of the world's poorest and most vulnerable people in 2019, while responding to 82 emergencies in 24 countries. Concern aims to help those living in the world's poorest countries. Concern is engaged in long-term development work, in addition to emergency relief in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Concern's core work focuses on health, hunger and humanitarian response in emergencies. The charity works in partnership with small community groups as well as governments and large global organisations. Concern is one of fourteen fully certified members of Humanitarian Accountability Partnership. It has no religious or political affiliations.
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.
ACLEDA Bank Plc. is a public limited company, formed under the Banking and Financial Institutions Law of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Based in Phnom Penh, with 261 offices covering all provinces, as well as 42 in Laos, and seven in Myanmar. ACLEDA started out in 1993 when it began providing micro credits to war victims. By now it is Cambodia's major commercial bank. ACLEDA had more than $5,244 million in total assets as of December 31, 2017, and more than $3,117 million in deposits, with over $3,085 million in loans outstanding. According to the National Bank of Cambodia, ACLEDA Bank is the largest domestic commercial bank in terms of total assets and number of clients, with more than 1.7 million depositors as of December 31, 2017.
The Mifos Initiative is a U.S.-based non-profit organization
Vijay Mahajan is the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the director of the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Contemporary Studies.
Jonathan Morduch is a professor of public policy and economics at the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University. He is a development economist most well known for his significant academic contributions to assessing the impact of microfinance since the early years of the movement. He has written extensively on poverty and financial institutions in developing countries and on tensions between achieving social impacts and meeting financial goals in microfinance.
Financial inclusion is the availability and equality of opportunities to access financial services. It refers to processes by which individuals and businesses can access appropriate, affordable, and timely financial products and services - which include banking, loan, equity, and insurance products. It provides paths 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
Oikocredit is a cooperative society that offers loans or investment capital for microfinance institutions, cooperatives and small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries. It is one of the world's largest private financiers of the microfinance sector. The idea for Oikocredit came from a 1968 meeting of the World Council of Churches. Following this, Oikocredit was established in 1975 in the Netherlands.
Microcredit for water supply and sanitation is the application of microcredit to provide loans to small enterprises and households in order to increase access to an improved water source and sanitation in developing countries. While most investments in water supply and sanitation infrastructure are financed by the public sector, investment levels have been insufficient to achieve universal access. Commercial credit to public utilities was limited by low tariffs and insufficient cost-recovery. Microcredits are a complementary or alternative approach to allow the poor to gain access to water supply and sanitation in the aforementioned regions.
Women's World Banking is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to women's economic empowerment through financial inclusion.
Angkor Mikroheranhvatho (Kampuchea) Co., also known as AMK, is a registered microfinance institution (MFI) headquartered in Phnom Penh, Cambodia with over 280,000 active borrowers.
The Microfinance Institutions Network is an association for the microfinance sector in India.
Intean Poalroath Rongroeurng(IPR) is a Cambodian microfinance institution focused on the domestic agricultural sector. IPR is headquartered in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and operates six branch offices including several service post offices in five provinces: Kandal, Takéo, Pursat, Batdambang, and Banteay Meanchey.
Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, is the Founder, MD & CEO of Bandhan Bank. He has been one of the foremost proponents of financial inclusion in India. He has more than 30 years of experience in the microfinance and development terrain.
VFS Capital Limited formerly known as Village Financial Services Ltd (VFS), is headquartered in Kolkata, was incorporated on 28 June 1994, as a private limited company before it got its present name.
Chea Serey is a Cambodian economist who currently serves as the Governor (អគ្គទេសាភិបាល) of the National Bank of Cambodia, the first woman to hold this position. She was previously the Deputy Governor (ទេសាភិបាលរង) of the National Bank of Cambodia, which holds an equivalent status to the Minister of Cambodia.
