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India’s Banks Are Big on Microfinance
Lending money to the poor has largely been the province of small operators, but major financial institutions are now starting to focus on it in a serious way. ICICI Bank (IDN) is a big money-center lender that deals with sizable companies in Bombay, Bangalore, and New Delhi. It is also one of India’s biggest consumer lenders. So why does Nachiket Mor spend a lot of tie in India’s economically depressed rural hinterland looking for prospective borrowers? He recently visited a family of fi...
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Negroponte: $100 laptop trials to kick off
Reports that trials of the $100 laptop project will kick off in Thailand alone have been quashed by Nicholas Negroponte. Excerpt: Reports that trials of the $100 laptop project will kick off in Thailand alone have been quashed by Nicholas Negroponte. Negroponte, the chairman of the One Laptop per Child group, said Monday that field trials of its low-cost PC for children in the developing world will start everywhere the laptop is required at roughly the same time. In an e-ma...
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Tanzania: Bank Sets Aside $5 Million to Lend to Informal Sector
Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania will set aside $5 million to assist Tanzania’s small and medium firms. Excerpt: Standard Chartered Bank Tanzania will set aside $5 million to assist Tanzania’s small and medium firms. The chief executive Hemen Shah last week told The EastAfrican that the institution had signed an agreement with PRIDE Tanzania, a small micro-provident fund, to finance the project. He said the bank’s entry into the micro-lending sector signifies it...
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Nigeria Approves 8 Microfinance Institutions
The Central Bank of Nigeria yesterday gave approval-in-principle to Accion, a United States-based microfinance company and seven others, including indigenous firms, to operate as Micro-Finance Banks (MFBs) in the country. Excerpt: The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday gave approval-in-principle to Accion, a United States-based microfinance company and seven others, including indigenous firms, to operate as Micro-Finance Banks (MFBs) in the country. The other seven companies are ...
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Borrowing seen as way out of poverty trap
From a concept first used in the developing world, microfinance has recently expanded to Europe. Hundreds of government- and private-funded initiatives have sprung up to fill the void opened by the reluctance of European banks to lend money to the poor or unemployed. Excerpt: An elegant Parisianwoman sipping her cappuccino in a caf?on Boulevard de Bonne Nouvelle is one of the last people you expect to launch into a passionate tirade about microfinance. Yet Maria Nowak is no ordinary P...
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Uganda: Micro Finance Institutions Need Help
I am glad that President Yoweri Museveni appointed a minister of state for micro-finance. Ugandans will have a smile on their faces since this is a step towards poverty eradication in Uganda. However, a number of things need to be done for the business community to benefit from the micro-finance and for the government not to lose out. Excerpt: I am glad that President Yoweri Museveni appointed a minister of state for micro-finance. Ugandans will have a smile on their faces since this is a step t...
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Water scarcity affects one in three
A third of the world?s population is suffering from a shortage of water, raising the prospect of ?water crises? in countries such as China, India and the US Excerpt: A third of the world?s population is suffering from a shortage of water, raising the prospect of ?water crises? in countries such as China, India and the US. Scientists had forecast in 2000 that one in three would face water shortages by 2025, but water experts have been shocked to find that this threshold has already bee...
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Tiny grants, big hope in AIDS fight
In the Mashuru area of Kenya, a single woman with HIV who had no source of income now runs a small general store, is self-sufficient and, most importantly, is eating properly, thanks to a $140 grant from World Vision. In the same region, a group of 15 women have used a $1,400 grant from the humanitarian organization to expand a small business of rearing goats for sale at market, using the added profit to care for HIV orphans and vulnerable children in their villag...
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