Microfinance

Description

Microfinance programming provides people with access to financial services such as credit, savings, and insurance, ensuring broad-based economic growth and reduced poverty. Those struggling in developing countries often lack access to safe places to keep their savings, making it difficult to obtain credit to start and grow their businesses.

Use of Funds

Programs improve the quality and affordability of financial services; extend access to excluded populations such as women, people with disabilities, and those living in remote areas; and assist small-holder farmers and small-business entrepreneurs in selling their products by linking them with buyers and suppliers of goods and services.

Justification

• According to the World Bank, “globally, about 4 billion adults remain unbanked without an account at a financial institution or through a mobile money provider. These people are more often women, poorer, less educated, and living in rural areas.”
• Access to financial services and the development of microenterprises are essential to the stable growth of developing countries.
• Access to capital for small and medium enterprises steadies personal incomes and communities, grows local markets, and helps pave the way to independence.
• In Lebanon, USAID is lending capital and providing management and planning support to eight microfinance organizations.