microfinance Archives - InnovationAfrica

Micro-loans may be trendy, but enterprises that employ more than one will grow economies

Direct micro-lending is all the rage, but while it has many advantages for the poor, not everyone needs to be an entrepreneur. Most people just want...

Book Review: A firsthand look at Kiva entrepreneurs across the globe

Financial Inclusion In an ideal world, microfinance is the perfect mechanism for alleviating financial stress on new and small businesses. But...

Two ways to get farm loans where they’re needed most: the boonies

To get small staple-crop farmers the loans they need, lenders must use new approaches tailored to the 90 percent of smallholders not in farmer...

The biggest microlender of them all

THERE are an estimated 120,000 microfinance initiatives worldwide but Thailand’s “Village and Urban Revolving Fund” lends more money to more people...

Microfinance Is Good for Women, but It’s Only Part of the Solution

Ellen Kullman (DuPont), Maria das Graças Silva Foster (Petrobras), and Chua Sock Koong (Singapore Telecommunications) lead three of the most powerful companies in the world. These women, like many other great leaders, got there by working their way up the ladder — not by founding entrepreneurial ventures. ...

Learning from Microfinance’s Woes

From HBR A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture about microfinance, and got sucker-punched. Expecting to hear a litany of pros and cons about the business,...