Microfinance


Book Description

Affirms that the links between microfinance and the Millennium Development Goals must be emphasised because both spheres overlap in the crucial domain of worldwide poverty reduction. Explores how microfinance could boost current efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Argues that substantial synergies are yet to be realized between microfinance and Goals, based on careful, well- targeted approaches that are not only pro-poor, but also focus on the unique situation of the chronic poor.




Financial Inclusion and Livelihood Transformation


Book Description

This book explores the role and effect of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) with different dimensions. It is being supported with strong empirical evidence into various parameters of MFIs directed towards inclusive finance and the transformation journey of livelihoods of its beneficiaries. It also incorporates empirical evidence with the perception of both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. Starting its journey toward the path of comprehending how MFIs make their footprint among the excluded population in the selected areas, it incorporates the different outcomes of MFI lending like credit utilisation patterns, income generation, and employability. As financial stability helps to break out the vicious cycle of poverty, this book emphasises the self-dependent element for the beneficiaries and their households. It addresses the important issue of the female counterparts in society. It shows how the MFIs work actively to generate female empowerment from multiple dimensions among the selected communities. It addresses key issues to consider for inclusive policy formulation, especially for backward communities in the backward areas and gives a realistic scenario of the MFI activities, their interactions with the respondents, the various outcomes, and areas for further developments, etc. This book is beneficial for academicians, researchers, and policymakers.




Can Commercially-Oriented Microfinance Help Meet the Millennium Development Goals? Evidence from Pakistan


Book Description

The current emphasis in the microfinance industry is a shift from donor-funded to commercially sustainable operations. This article evaluates the impact of access to microloans from the Khushhali Bank -- Pakistan's first and largest microfinance bank which operates on commercial principles. Using primary data from a detailed household survey of nearly 3,000 borrower and non-borrower households, a difference in difference approach is used to test for the impact of access to loans. Once the results are disaggregated between rural and urban areas there is a positive impact in rural areas on food expenditure and on some social indicators such as the health of children and female empowerment. These impacts are observed even in very poor households. These findings suggest that commercially-oriented microfinance and the millennium development goals are not incompatible, given a supportive environment.




Microfinance and Poverty Reduction: An Empirical Evidence from Benin Metropolis South-South of Nigeria


Book Description

This book is an empirical study of how microfinance impacts on poverty reduction in Nigeria. The book examined conceptual issues in poverty and microfinance with focus on the nature and incidences of the poverty phenomenon, justification for the establishment and growth of microfinance in Nigeria. This book with theoretical and empirical findings investigates the previous attempts by the governments in alleviating poverty and specifically how microfinance have helped in reducing the poverty menace especially since the promulgation of the microfinance banking act in 2005 by the Central bank of Nigeria.




Financial Sector Development and the Millennium Development Goals


Book Description

This study investigates the relationship between financial sector development and progress in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It assesses the contribution of countries' financial sector development to achieving the MDGs. The focus is on the relationships between financial development and economic welfare and growth, and the following four MDG-themes: Poverty, Education, Health, and Gender Equality. In doing so, the book reviews the theoretical channels, surveys existing empirical evidence - both cross-country and case study evidence, and provides new evidence. Financial Sector Development and the Millennium Development Goals finds that financial development is an important driver for economic welfare in that it reduces the prevalence of income poverty and undernourishment. In addition, new evidence is provided of a positive association between financial development and health, education, and gender equality.







Microfinance


Book Description

Today, almost half of the world's 7 billion people live on US$2 a day or less. Polak in his book "Out of Poverty," argues that what the poor need to get out of poverty is money. Following this, the UN declared 2005 the Year of Microcredit to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015. Since that time, microfinance has received much attention. Access to finance for production and consumption is one of the solutions suggested by theory and empirical studies to alleviate poverty in rural Africa. Such financing has been seen to work best through households and self-help groups. Tanzania as one of the poorest countries in the World with rural populations taking the largest proportion of poverty incidence has been struggling to reduce poverty as with other developing countries. One of the interventions has been the introduction and implementation of the National Microfinance Policy. Evidence from policy documents seem to suggest that VICOBA stands out among MFIs in poverty reduction. This study used empirical analysis to investigate the actual role of VICOBA project in Tanzania and the extent to which their operations contribute to poverty alleviation.




Microfinance and Sustainable Development in Africa


Book Description

"This book offers great insight into theoretical, policy-oriented and practical ways to address some of the challenges of using microfinance for sustainable development in Africa"--