Implications Of Microfinance In Gambia

713 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Microfinance and its role in development

1. INTRODUCTION Microfinance has been of a great interest in the recent past, particularly in the context of reaching the poorest families in a more effective way. The word microfinance is being used very often in development vocabulary today. Although the word is literally comprised of two words: micro and finance which literally mean small credit; the concept of microfinance goes beyond the provision of small credit to the poor. Christen (1997) defines microfinance as 'the means of providing a variety of financial services to the poor based on market-driven and commercial approaches'(Christen R.P., 1997). This definition encompasses provision of other financial services like savings, money transfers, payments, remittances, and insurance, …show more content…

There is great optimism as the growth of microfinance has shown that the poor are creditworthy, while the formal banking institutions serve only investment-worthy clients who are non-poor. However, to eliminate poverty, microfinance must be carried out in a sustainable way and cheaply, reaching a massive scale of the poor, with continuous improvement in the quality of service delivery. My study will therefore focus on the impact of microfinance in alleviating poverty in the rural Gambia. 2. THE RESEARCH PROBLEMS There has been a lot of emphasis on the importance of access to financial services by the poor and marginalized as a means of reducing poverty in many forms. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) have been said to reach the population living below the poverty line with valuable financial services and mostly targeting a large number of poor. Has microfinance, therefore, contributed in the reduction of poverty in the rural Gambia? 3. PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH Microfinance institutions as a body of delivering financial services to a previously ignored, excluded and disadvantaged population, who are also the poor, is expected to make changes in the lives of the poor. The poor, who lack access to funds to take advantage of the opportunities, should be able to generate income and accumulate assets as microfinance delivers the financial

Show More
Related

  • Conventional Common Wisdom

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although poverty has minimized, it is still significant poverty which is characterized by a numerous amount of things. There are two types of poverty case and insular. “Case poverty is the farm family with the junk-filled yard and the dirty children playing in the bare dirt” (Galbraith 236)Case poverty is not irretraceable and usually caused if someone in the household experiences “ mental deficiency, bad health, inability to adapt to the discipline of industrial life, uncontrollable procreation, alcohol, some educational handicap unrelated to community shortcomings” (Galbraith 236).Case poverty is often blamed on the people for their shortcomings but on some levels can be to pinpoint one person's shortcomings that caused this poverty. Most modern poverty is insular and is caused by things people in this community cannot control. “The most important characteristic of insular poverty is forces, common to all members of the community, that restrain or prevent participation in economic life and increase rates of return.

    Read More

  • Microcredit Satire

    246 Words  | 1 Pages

    Microcredit, as described by Isserles, is a development “scam” which destroys the lives of Third World peoples. To her, these small loans falsely identify women, and others, as being worthy of credit, but the agreement’s terms subjugate them to continued financial dependency on microcredit loans. The First world hails this program as a success because aid is just a handout while microloans are a way of creating self-reliance through the market. Isserles states that the market becomes the solution to the “temporary” state of poverty, and this idea is due to a disconnect between the First World and the Third World. Projects claim to support women through finance, yet they refuse to alter the labor and domestic conditions of women across the world.

    Read More

  • Poverty in Less Developed Countries

    469 Words  | 1 Pages

    Poverty in Developing and Less Developed Countries The world includes less developed countries and developing countries. Less developed countries are countries considered to be poor and often contain many people who are in absolute poverty. Developing countries are countries like India, which are gaining in wealth. There are two types of poverty within the world.

    Read More

  • Poverty in Uganda

    1081 Words  | 3 Pages

    Krishna, Anirudh, et al. "Escaping Poverty And Becoming Poor In 36 Villages Of Central And Western Uganda." Journal Of Development Studies 42.2 (2006): 346-370. Business Source Complete. Web. 20 May 2014.

    Read More

  • Why Was Yunus Awarded The Nobel Peace Prize?

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although Yunus is an economist by profession and his microfinance project does sound as an economic move, nevertheless the scope of it is much wider than targeting finances alone. He has a long term vision to eliminate poverty around the world and provide a better quality of life for those who are less fortunate and deprived of some secure financial background. Since he feels like every person on this planet has an equal right to get a chance to improve her/his life, nevertheless her/his background, we could say that his vision goes far beyond providing the loans – he strives to

    Read More

  • Poverty in Africa

    1472 Words  | 3 Pages

    African nations regularly fall to the bottom of any list measuring economic activity, such as per capita income or per capita GDP, despite a wealth of natural resources. The bottom 25 spots of the United Nations (UN) quality of life index are regularly filled by African nations. In 2006, 34 of the 50 nations on the UN list of least developed countries are in Africa. In many nations, the per capita income is often less than $200 U.S. per year, with the vast majority of the population living on much less. In addition, Africa's share of income has been consistently dropping over the past century by any measure. In 1820, the average European worker earned about three times what the average African did. Now, the average European earns twenty times what the average African does. Although per capita incomes in Africa have also been steadily growing, and poverty falling, measures are still far better in other parts of the world, such as Latin America, which suffers from many of the same disadvantages that Africa has.

    Read More

  • Bajaj Auto Finance Case Study

    1734 Words  | 4 Pages

    The lifestyle of people across the world is developing rapidly. As there is a growing concern for people about the lifestyle and way of living, the scope for the microfinance industry is also at a growing pace. A large number of people across the world prefer finance for the purpose of purchase of consumer durables as well as lifestyle products. As the credit card EMI options are more expensive, people prefer NBFCs for the purpose of consumer durable loans. The project done in bajaj finserv explains the role of NBFCs in the consumer durable loans and the procedure undertaken in order to disburse the consumer durable loans.

    Read More

  • Does Poverty Fosters Crime?

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Poverty at Large: A Dark Spot in Humanity.” Causes of Poverty, 25 March 2014. Web. 26

    Read More

  • Poverty in Developing Countries

    590 Words  | 2 Pages

    As developed countries quench their thirsts for petrol, developing countries around the world are left behind, force to watch on without any help from the outside community. Being poor means to be disadvantaged in every single way. It means not being able to support yourself or your family or have the basic necessity to life. Without substantial help for these helpless people then we should be feeling guilty that we are living lives far better than what others are experiencing. Poverty may because by wars, disease or lack of education and infrastructure and the resulting consequences may be hunger, starvation, crime and ultimately death. If poverty is not eradicated then injustice will continue, increasing death tolls and lives.

    Read More

  • Microcredit

    1743 Words  | 4 Pages

    Overall, microcredit has helped millions of people around the world and it continues to have a great impact on poor people, informing them that all they need is a little ‘push’ or start-up money to begin creating a better life and subsequently a better community. Each organization has its own goals and purposes depending on the country where they reside as well as different challenges that have appeared. Microcredit is helping poor people and small business owners to better themselves as well as to their families and have their time, skills, and ideas utilized in an effective and positive way.

    Read More

  • Poverty In Ghana Essay

    1330 Words  | 3 Pages

    There has been an uneven distribution of poverty incidence and poverty gap in Ghana over the past decades. A proportion of the population of Ghana enjoys fair outcome of the national development whiles others lumber in poverty. In fact, poverty level would have reduced in Ghana if there is a decreasing inequality. The disparities in the distri-bution of welfare between the rural poor and the urban population in Ghana may be attributed to several factors.

    Read More

  • Poverty in Nigeria

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    In rural Nigeria, up to 80% of the population (as compared to 70% of Nigeria as a whole3) live below the poverty line, despite their fast-growing agricultural economy4. According to Nigerian author Anthony Maduagwu, it is in places such as these where we can find the solution to Nigeria's economic predicament. In his article “Alleviating poverty in Nigeria”, he says, “only the poor understands poverty and it is also the poor that know how their poverty could be alleviated... the fact is that the poor usually have quite good perceptions of their own needs and goals and of what would be required to satisfy and make progress toward them”5. He made the case that while government-funded “poverty alleviating programmes” help poverty rates in one place, the create poverty in another6. This is supported b...

    Read More

  • Microfinance Essay

    1359 Words  | 3 Pages

    Microfinance refers to provision of financial services to poor or low-income clients, including consumers and self-employed.in other words, it refers to a movement that envisions “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, it includes not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.”. Promoter’s microfinance generally believes that such access will help poor people out of poverty.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Entrepreneurship In Nigeria

    1646 Words  | 4 Pages

    Entrepreneurship is an innovative process of vision, change and creation;it needs energy and passion towards the creation and implementation of new ideas and creative solutions (David, 2013). It includes willingness to take risk in terms of career, time and the ability to have an effective team force, having a business plan and the vision to recognize opportunity where others see confusion and chaos (David, 2013).Dollinger (2003) defines entrepreneurship in agriculture as the creation of innovative economic organization for the purpose of growth or gain under conditions of risk and uncertainty in agriculture. Entrepreneurship in agriculture is seen as one of the most important solutions to poverty, unemployment and low economic

    Read More

  • Effects Of Poverty On Society

    970 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first and arguably most common effect of poverty on society is its financial impact (Veritta, 2008). In many of the societies that experienced significantly high levels of poverty, debt was increasingly common, and especially debt accrued from moneylenders (Hatcher, 2016). For many individuals living in poverty, access to financial services such as banking is often stifled and rudimentary, making it difficult for such individuals to access self-improvement loans at standard and fair rates (Yoshikawa, Aber, & Beardslee, 2012). For these individuals, moneylenders are the best option available, which results in them paying exorbitant interest rates. The interconnection between poverty and finance, however, is cyclic in nature. The lack of finances or access to financial services causes poverty, which in turn causes an isolation of individuals from finances and financial services (Hickey & du Toit, 2013). This makes poverty a fairly complex problem to

    Read More

More about Implications Of Microfinance In Gambia

Open Document