Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Microfinance helps 0.9 million poor families

With an increase in a number of micro finance institutions, poor families' access to micro-loans has increased significantly in recent years and the number of beneficiaries has crossed 900,000 in Nepal.The number of beneficiary families is nearly half of the population living below the poverty line in the country, according to a report of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, released today.
More than 133 million of the world's poorest people — 60 per cent of them women — received micro loans in 2006 to start or expand micro businesses, according to a report, 'State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 2007', which is prepared with data gathered from more than 3,316 institutions worldwide.
In total, the institutions reported the number of beneficiaries soared to more than 133 million clients, with 93 million individuals falling into the campaign's focus poorest clients, from 13 million nine years ago. The focus group of clients has been identified those people living below $1 a day.
In Nepal, the Rural Microfinance Development Centre Ltd (RMDC), an apex wholesale agency for microfinance, released the report. RMDC stated that it has disbursed $31.8 million to the women of the poor families through its 60 partner organisations or micro-finance institutions (MFI) during its eight years of operation.
Targeting to the poor including the poorest of the poor, lending at their doorsteps without physical collateral, bi-weekly repayment schedules are basic characteristics of the MFIs, said Shanker Man Shrestha, CEO at the RMDC, adding that one of the most admired beauties of micro-credit is its 100 per cent repayment rate and RMDC's partners have maintained over 99 per cent recovery rate.
Shrestha said that micro-credit has yet to reach some of the most deprived areas of mid-western and far-western regions of the country. RMDC has taken appropriate steps and strategies to cover most of the poor population left out from the institutional microfinance services in the next 10 years.

No comments: