Wednesday, August 31, 2016

What people think of Microfinance?

Microfinance is financial services for poor and low-income communities, people who have been excluded from the mainstream financial system. Yet, there are the diverse opinions people have about Microfinance. I have encountered few in last 5-6 years and presenting them in summary format.

1. The MBA: "Truly amazing business model & poverty reduction tool."

2. The arrogant: “Unsustainable and too risky! Does it actually work?”

3. The over-informed: “Yes, I know about it, you give money to poor. Social enterprise!”

4. The ill-informed: “Thugs lending money to poor at high interest rates and brutal recovery techniques.”

5. The devout fan: "This is the future, only we need investment and scaling and may be P2P."

Microfinance is not panacea from all troubles, this also means that not any poor person can obtain the loan. I can vouch with my experience that only micro loans can't solve poverty. There is enough evidence to support my claim : Microloans Don’t Solve Poverty But research might reveal what will. I always go for the advice of Wayne Dyre before deciding for myself:"The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about."