Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category
Posted on September 2, 2010 - by M. Bennett
The Economist: Power to the people…
Technology and development: A growing number of initiatives are promoting bottom-up ways to deliver energy to the world’s poor
Sep 2nd 2010
AROUND 1.5 billion people, or more than a fifth of the world’s population, have no access to electricity, and a billion more have only an unreliable and intermittent supply. Of the people without electricity, 85% live in rural areas or on the fringes of cities. Extending energy grids into these areas is expensive: the United Nations estimates that an average of $35 billion-40 billion a year needs to be invested until 2030 so everyone on the planet can cook, heat and light their premises, and have energy for productive uses such as schooling. On current trends, however, the number of “energy poor” people will barely budge, and 16% of the world’s population will still have no electricity by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.
But why wait for top-down solutions? Providing energy in a bottom-up way instead has a lot to recommend it. There is no need to wait for politicians or utilities to act. The technology in question, from solar panels to low-energy light-emitting diodes (LEDs), is rapidly falling in price. Local, bottom-up systems may be more sustainable and produce fewer carbon emissions than centralised schemes. In the rich world, in fact, the trend is towards a more flexible system of distributed, sustainable power sources. The developing world has an opportunity to leapfrog the centralised model, just as it leapfrogged fixed-line telecoms and went straight to mobile phones.
Posted on August 22, 2010 - by M. Bennett
India: Top 100 Microfinance Institutions in the World…
For the third year running, MIX has released it’s Composite Ranking of the performance of microfinance institutions and Grameen Financial Services Pvt Ltd is the highest ranked Indian MFI at No 4 . Next comes SKS Microfinance at No 7, followed by Spandana at No 8. BASIX is ranked at No 11, SHARE at No 12 and Bandhan Microfinance at No 13.
What is the MIX Global 100 Composite Ranking ?
The MIX Global 100 attempts to provide a composite picture of MFI performance using a series of attributes: outreach, efficiency, and transparency. It views MFI performance, something that is inherently local and influenced by the conditions of the market in which the MFI must operate, through the lens of universal goals—a financially sound institution and expanding outreach to clients at the lowest possible cost—and all done in the public arena so that others may learn from the experience.
Posted on August 11, 2010 - by M. Bennett
WSJ: Confessions of a Micro-Financier…
August 11, 2010, 5:38 PM IST
By Bijou George and Eric Bellman
Microfinance doesn’t help the very poor.
While the argument that all the attention the microlending industry attracts sometimes diverts funds from reaching programs that need it more is not new, India Real Time was surprised to see it outlined by Vikram Akula, the founder of SKS Microfinance Ltd.
Back in 2004, when SKS was almost unknown, Mr. Akula submitted his 183-page doctoral thesis to the University of Chicago. It outlined the problems and the potential of the microfinance industry. It said that many organizations got it all wrong and ended up ignoring the very poor for the “middle and upper” poor.
Posted on August 6, 2010 - by M. Bennett
Bloomberg: Hedge Funds Gamble on Poor in `Simpsons’ Farce…
By William Pesek – Aug 4, 2010 3:00 PM EST
Betting on the poor has never been this profitable or this tasteless.
Just ask the good folks at George Soros’s Quantum (M) Ltd., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Nomura Holdings Inc. Funds they control stand to make a bundle on SKS Microfinance Ltd.’s initial public offering.
Never mind that bankers’ disregard for the poor necessitated the creation of microfinance. Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds alike now see value in the poor of India, where about 120 million households have no access to banking. All’s fair in love, war and finance, right? Wrong.
This is a sad day for a grass-roots phenomenon that has altered the lives of millions. Be it the widow in Bangalore seeking $100 to buy a cow, the man in Lagos eyeing $75 for a used motorbike or the family in Jakarta looking for $30 for a mobile phone, microfinance is changing the face of development.
Posted on August 5, 2010 - by M. Bennett
Washington Times: Micro-finance: Let’s get it going in U.S…
Wednesday, August 4, 2010 – Making Change by Donna Rae Scheffert
Northfield, MN – 8/4/10 Micro-finance provides small amounts of money to local entrepreneurs. These borrowers have often been turned away by commercial banks. They may lack the necessary capital to support business development and business growth.
Muhammad Yunus first lent out $27 to 42 stool makers in Bangladesh in 1976. In doing so he planted the seeds of the Grameen Bank. The bank has become a symbol of success for micro-credit.
Micro-finance programs are meant to not only alleviate poverty. They empower and inspire the individual entrepreneur. The community benefits from the product or services of the entrepreneur.
Across the globe people are jumping onto the micro-financing bandwagon. There are some examples in the United States. Why not start an effort in your community?
Posted on July 30, 2010 - by M. Bennett
Gallup: Few Sub-Saharan Africans Aware of Local Microfinance Options…
Forty-three percent say lenders aren’t available
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Residents in sub-Saharan African countries report a wide range of awareness about the availability of microfinance lending in their communities, suggesting these institutions remain locally inaccessible to many who would benefit most from using them. Malawians (65%) and Ugandans (63%) are the most likely to say they are aware of these institutions in their communities, while respondents from Ivory Coast (18%), Democratic Republic of the Congo (16%), and Zimbabwe (15%) are the least likely to say the same.
Posted on July 26, 2010 - by M. Bennett
Bloomberg: Soros-Backed SKS Microfinance Seeks as Much as $347 Million in Indian IPO…
By Ruth David – Jul 26, 2010 12:25 AM CST
SKS Microfinance Ltd., the Indian lender backed by Sequoia Capital and George Soros, raised its initial public offering to as much as 16.3 billion rupees ($347 million) after six quarters of gains by the key equity index.
Shares in the Hyderabad-based company will be offered from July 28 for 850 rupees to 985 rupees each, with a 50 rupees discount for retail buyers, according to an advertisement in the Financial Express newspaper today. Kotak Mahindra Capital Co., Citigroup Inc. and Credit Suisse Group AG are managing the IPO. The company in March had said it would seek $250 million.
Posted on July 20, 2010 - by M. Bennett
MicroRate announces the release of new study…
Posted on July 18, 2010 - by M. Bennett
Microfinance: Back to the Drawing Board…
Despite the hype surrounding microfinance as an answer to solving world poverty, new research shows it isn’t the savior economists envisioned.
By Brad Wittwer
Yohane Mdeme owns a food market in Tanzania. Though poor and with little to no collateral, he applied for a loan of $850 through Kiva.org to expand his small business. Twenty years ago in such a place and for such a client, Mdeme would never obtain the capital to increase his business. No bank would have given out such a small loan, much less to a person without collateral.
Yet Mdeme is well on his way to receiving his requested amount in full.
This process, called microfinance, has been put on a pedestal by development economists thanks to its high repayment rates and ability to provide capital and growth where it used to be nonexistent. But recent research links its success with national economic growth, suggesting it only succeeds in economies that are already beginning to bloom.
