Deal to finance the poor

WASHINGTON – A campaign to provide 100 million families living below the poverty line with access to micro-loans is nearing its target, but has also highlighted the challenges to the growing microfinance market of reaching the poorest, authors of a new report said on Wednesday.

The report by the Microcredit Summit Campaign, launched in 1997, said data from 3 133 microfinance institutions reported reaching some 113 million clients last year; 82 million of those are extremely poor, most of them in Asia and women. A majority of the institutions, some 1 652, are in Asia and the Pacific and 959 are in sub-Saharan Africa.”The loans to 82 million poorest clients affected 410 million families,” campaign director Sam Daley-Harris said.The business of lending small amounts of money to the poor who are unable to gain access to loans elsewhere has attracted increased attention since its innovator, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize last month.Loans as little as US$50 can allow the poor to start or develop small businesses, helping to reduce poverty.Many big commercial banks have entered the market by lending to established microfinance institutions in the developing world.Daley-Harris said the campaign would soon ratchet up its target to reach 175 million poor families by 2015, which will be discussed at a conference in Halifax, Canada, starting on November 12.He said the United Nations should adopt the 2015 goal for microcredit and should also become “more than a footnote” in funding and policies of government development agencies.Nampa-ReutersA majority of the institutions, some 1 652, are in Asia and the Pacific and 959 are in sub-Saharan Africa.”The loans to 82 million poorest clients affected 410 million families,” campaign director Sam Daley-Harris said.The business of lending small amounts of money to the poor who are unable to gain access to loans elsewhere has attracted increased attention since its innovator, Muhammad Yunus, won the Nobel Peace Prize last month.Loans as little as US$50 can allow the poor to start or develop small businesses, helping to reduce poverty.Many big commercial banks have entered the market by lending to established microfinance institutions in the developing world.Daley-Harris said the campaign would soon ratchet up its target to reach 175 million poor families by 2015, which will be discussed at a conference in Halifax, Canada, starting on November 12.He said the United Nations should adopt the 2015 goal for microcredit and should also become “more than a footnote” in funding and policies of government development agencies.Nampa-Reuters