Micro Finance Information

In recent days Micro Credit concept becomes very much popular. But this concept intended in mid-1800s but then this concept was not become popular which it is now. The concept of micro credit can be traced back to portions of the Marshall Plan at the end of WWII in the middle of the 20th century.

Or even back to the mid-1800s and the writings of abolitionist/legal theorist Lysander Spooner who wrote about the benefits of many small loans for entrepreneurial activities to the poor as a way to alleviate poverty.

However, this concept became popular among the mass from 1970s and onward.

Dr. Akhter Hameed Khan introduced the revolutionary idea of microcredit (microfinance), thereby opening a new door for billions of destitute and underprivileged. As head of the Pakistan Academy for Rural Development (now Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, BARD) in Comilla, Bangladesh, Dr. Khan pioneered microcredit through the Comilla Cooperative Pilot Project in 1960. Source:

• "The Works of Akhter Hameed Khan" Vol: I-III
• "Rural Development in Action" by Arthur F Raper

After that some other’s also use this concept. Those are:-

• In 1971, Al Whittaker resigned as president of Bristol Myers and established Opportunity International’s first US office in Washington DC.
• In 1973 Accion International started to switch their focus toward providing economic opportunity to poor people.
• In 1974 Muhammad Yunus, a U.S.-educated professor of economics started a similar experiment. In 1976, Yunus founded the Grameen Bank to make loans to poor Bangladeshis.
• In the 1980s FINCA International continued the successful trend of microcredit in Bolivia.
• The SEEP Network is an organization of more than 50 international non-governmental organizations that support micro and small business and microfinance institutions in the developing world.

The Economic and Social Council of the United Nations declared the year 2005 as the International Year of Microcredit.

Today the World Bank estimates that there are now more than 7,000 microfinance institutions, serving some 16 million poor people in developing countries. According to Le Monde newspaper, World Bank experts estimated that 500 million people benefited from these small loans (about 80 euros), on a total of three billion poor people.

Via Wikipedia.  

First of all what is Micro Credit?

In the Micro Credit has two words, one is micro and another is credit. Micro stands for mini or small and credit means loan. The key implications of microcredit are in its name itself: ‘micro’. Micro credit is the extension of small loans to the unemployed, entrepreneurs and others who are too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. These people don’t have any assets that secure a debt obligation also they don’t have any steady income source and therefore cannot meet even the most minimum qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. The above mentioned definition also varies from country to country but some basic features remain same at all time. The basic features are:-

• Size – The size or amount of the credit is very small.
• Target users – Micro entrepreneurs and low-income households,
• Utilization - The use of funds for income generation, enterprise self-employment and housing for the poor also for community use (health/education) etc.
• Terms and conditions - most terms and conditions for micro credit loans are flexible and easy to understand, and suited to the local conditions of the community.

Micro Credit is a one of the great financial innovation which originated in developing countries. Where it helps people (mostly women) to be a self employed that allows them to generate an income and, in many cases, begin to build wealth and exit poverty. Today this Micro Credit Project becomes very popular in finance industry and many large finance organizations are adopt this concept as a source of future growth.

I will come soon with some more information….

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