Quotes & Sayings About Microfinance

Microfinance companies in India are responsible for hundreds of suicides - two hundred people in Andhra Pradesh in 2010 alone. — Anonymous

Because microfinance is so manageable in terms of the size of the loan, people have made it the cornerstone to lifting women out of poverty. — Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

We developed microfinance to fight loan sharks - I was telling people don't go to loan sharks - not trying to take advantage and make money for myself. I would be a junior loan shark if I did ... It is not a panacea. — Muhammad Yunus

Any so-called 'radical' strategy that seeks to empower the disempowered in the realm of social reproduction by opening up that realm to monetisation and market forces is headed in exactly the wrong direction. Providing financial literacy classes for the populace at large will simply expose that population predatory practices as they seek to manage their own investment portfolios like minnows swimming in a sea of sharks. Providing microcredit and microfinance facilities encourages people to participate in the market economy but does so in such a way as to maximise the energy they have to expend while minimising their returns. Providing legal title for land property ownership in the hope that this will bring economic and social stability to the lives of the marginalised will almost certainly lead in the long run to their dispossession and eviction from that space and place they already hold through customary use rights. — David Harvey

Making loans and fighting poverty are normally two of the least glamorous pursuits around, but put the two together and you have an economic innovation that has become not just popular but downright chic. The innovation - microfinance - involves making small loans to poor entrepreneurs, usually in developing countries. — James Surowiecki

This is the basis for the most important critique of microfinance. The poor are not entrepreneurs. The idea that more than a few will turn tiny loans into a viable business is simply unrealistic. — Ian Smillie

Microfinance recognizes that poor people are remarkable reservoirs of energy and knowledge, posing an untapped opportunity to create markets, bring people in from the margins and give them the tools with which to help themselves. — Kofi Annan

To me, the poor are like Bonsai trees. When you plant the best seed of the tallest tree in a six-inch deep flower pot, you get a perfect replica of the tallest tree, but it is only inches tall. There is nothing wrong with the seed you planted; only the soil-base you provided was inadequate.
Poor people are bonsai people. There is nothing wrong with their seeds. Only society never gave them a base to grow on. — Muhammad Yunus

I think the money for the solutions for global poverty is on Wall Street. Wall Street allocates capital. And we need to get capital to the ideas that are successful, whether it's microfinance, whether it's through financial literacy programs, Wall Street can be the engine that makes capital get to the people who need it. — Kabir Sehgal

The moment you say microfinance everybody wants to help you. — Muhammad Yunus

A well-functioning microfinance bank can actually be a profitable business as well. So it became a perfect proof point that, through business, you can provide an experience that leads to individual self-empowerment. — Pierre Omidyar

However, as commercialization of microfinance deepens, the proportion of female clientele of microfinance institutions will decline steadily. — Godwin Ehigiamusoe

Microfinance is an idea whose time has come. — Kofi Annan

Field experiments to date have shown that microfinance - the provision of small loans, typically to women or groups of women - is not particularly effective in reducing poverty.14 — Dani Rodrik

Capitalism, it turns out, can achieve what charity and good intentions sometimes cannot. Microfinance has done more to bolster the status of women, and to protect them from abuse, than any laws could accomplish. — Nicholas D. Kristof

In 1989, I started the National Association of Business Women. We incorporated microfinance and different job training for women. We did a survey, with USAID, that found women lacked training, credit and information. — Joyce Banda

Microfinance initiatives are very high-touch models. The loan officer meets with local groups of borrowers every week, they share tips and techniques. There's a lot of training and learning that goes on, which adds to the cost of the model. — Pierre Omidyar

She may hide it, but Clinton is a policy nerd. Ask about microfinance, and she'll talk your ear off. Mention early childhood interventions, and she will gush about obscure details of a home visitation experiment in Elmira, N.Y., that dramatically improved child outcomes. — Nicholas Kristof

These results stand in sharp contrast to the hype that microfinance has attracted in development policy circles. They throw cold water on models that suggest lack of access to finance is among the most important constraints that poor households face. — Dani Rodrik

Microfinance is an incredibly powerful tool ... but we must move beyond micro-hopes and micro-ambitions for women. — Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Microfinance does not require previous experience or loans to the same extent as a small-business loan, so it's easier for women to enter the micro sector. — Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Microfinance stands as one of the most promising and cost-effective tools in the fight against global poverty. — Jonathan Morduch