This paper investigates the dynamic effect of microcredit nominal interest rates and inflation, using a panel data of 315 microfinance institutions from 34 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 2003 to 2011. To do so, we employ a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model using efficient generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation as proposed by Blundell and Bond (1998). Apart from the full sample estimation, we further group our countries into three different income groups. Overall, the full sample estimation suggests that there is a negative relationship between inflation and microcredit nominal interest rates. The causality runs from inflation to microcredit nominal interest rates, whereas the reverse does not hold. Furthermore, the forecast error variances after 10 years have very low explanatory power for both microcredit nominal interest rates and inflation. Far more importantly, the significance of our study findings supports the Fisher effect (Fisher, 1930) and that microfinance len...
{"title":"The nexus between microcredit nominal interest rates and inflation in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from panel vector autoregression analysis","authors":"Sydney Chikalipah","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.00038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.00038","url":null,"abstract":"This paper investigates the dynamic effect of microcredit nominal interest rates and inflation, using a panel data of 315 microfinance institutions from 34 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 2003 to 2011. To do so, we employ a panel vector autoregression (PVAR) model using efficient generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation as proposed by Blundell and Bond (1998). Apart from the full sample estimation, we further group our countries into three different income groups. Overall, the full sample estimation suggests that there is a negative relationship between inflation and microcredit nominal interest rates. The causality runs from inflation to microcredit nominal interest rates, whereas the reverse does not hold. Furthermore, the forecast error variances after 10 years have very low explanatory power for both microcredit nominal interest rates and inflation. Far more importantly, the significance of our study findings supports the Fisher effect (Fisher, 1930) and that microfinance len...","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"355-370"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3362/1755-1986.00038","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43653893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-12-01DOI: 10.3362/1755-1986.16-00009
Franz Rembart, Erfan Soliman
Currently, more and more competitors enter the Jordanian microfinance market, offering a greater range of differentiated loan products, aggressive interest rates and loan terms. Our goal is to formulate loan-acceptance prediction methods and, ultimately, pricing strategies for Jordanian microfinance products by studying the customer behaviour of one of the three largest microfinance institutions in Jordan with a particular focus on interest elasticity of demand. We examine the hypothesis of a low interest rate elasticity of demand, and the possibility of increasing the interest rate without cannibalizing loan demand. We plan a methodology to pin down average interest rate elasticity by determining the driving factors affecting the demand. The methodologies we use are based on empirical demand studies and a logistic regression dependence model for loan demand. As a by-product of these studies, we provide a data set including 63 different demographic, educational, household, loan, and other characteristics ...
{"title":"Loan demand in Jordanian microfinance market: interest rate elasticity and loan-acceptance prediction via logistic regression","authors":"Franz Rembart, Erfan Soliman","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.16-00009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.16-00009","url":null,"abstract":"Currently, more and more competitors enter the Jordanian microfinance market, offering a greater range of differentiated loan products, aggressive interest rates and loan terms. Our goal is to formulate loan-acceptance prediction methods and, ultimately, pricing strategies for Jordanian microfinance products by studying the customer behaviour of one of the three largest microfinance institutions in Jordan with a particular focus on interest elasticity of demand. We examine the hypothesis of a low interest rate elasticity of demand, and the possibility of increasing the interest rate without cannibalizing loan demand. We plan a methodology to pin down average interest rate elasticity by determining the driving factors affecting the demand. The methodologies we use are based on empirical demand studies and a logistic regression dependence model for loan demand. As a by-product of these studies, we provide a data set including 63 different demographic, educational, household, loan, and other characteristics ...","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"305-322"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3362/1755-1986.16-00009","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47214500","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are seen by governments and NGOs as engines of job creation, growth and generation of income. Policies and programmes are therefore based on the assumption that the solo self-employed and micro-sized entrepreneurs will graduate and become small. But we have known since the 1980s that this assumption needed to be looked at critically. Research in developing countries revealed that graduation hardly existed there. And if this is true in emerging economies, would it not also be valid in industrialized countries where rhetoric and policies are based on this assumption too? What we see in the South might be valid in the North as well. The research was repeated first in the Netherlands, focusing on graduation and job creation in MSMEs. In this paper, a longitudinal data set was used of a cohort of entrepreneurs in the Netherlands that started in 2008. In total, 629 entrepreneurs were surveyed annually for four years. A main finding of the paper is that graduation har...
{"title":"Graduation rates of micro and small enterprises in the Netherlands: it’s all about our missing memory","authors":"A. Kraaij, Klaas Molenaar","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.00019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.00019","url":null,"abstract":"Micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are seen by governments and NGOs as engines of job creation, growth and generation of income. Policies and programmes are therefore based on the assumption that the solo self-employed and micro-sized entrepreneurs will graduate and become small. But we have known since the 1980s that this assumption needed to be looked at critically. Research in developing countries revealed that graduation hardly existed there. And if this is true in emerging economies, would it not also be valid in industrialized countries where rhetoric and policies are based on this assumption too? What we see in the South might be valid in the North as well. The research was repeated first in the Netherlands, focusing on graduation and job creation in MSMEs. In this paper, a longitudinal data set was used of a cohort of entrepreneurs in the Netherlands that started in 2008. In total, 629 entrepreneurs were surveyed annually for four years. A main finding of the paper is that graduation har...","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"342-354"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3362/1755-1986.00019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44773640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-12-01DOI: 10.3362/1755-1986.15-00032
B. Taylor, Sarah Barlow, R. Cunningham
Education is one of the most significant and persistent development challenges globally. Despite 65 years of investment of aid money into education in developing countries, the number of children emerging with key skills remains critically low. While enrolment has increased, there is evidence that this is the result of target chasing and has had limited impact on educational outcomes. The limited impact of aid on education should not be surprising. At best, aid to education has provided only a small supplement to an already broken system. This paper proposes a framework for the analysis of the motivations of aid programmes, and then employs this framework to examine different approaches to education and the parameters according to which they have succeeded or failed. Using the framework to explain why prevailing approaches have resulted in the outcomes realized, the paper then examines the possibility for an alternative approach to be taken to intervention in education, one which attempts to change the wa...
{"title":"Market systems development in education? An experimental case from Nigeria","authors":"B. Taylor, Sarah Barlow, R. Cunningham","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.15-00032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.15-00032","url":null,"abstract":"Education is one of the most significant and persistent development challenges globally. Despite 65 years of investment of aid money into education in developing countries, the number of children emerging with key skills remains critically low. While enrolment has increased, there is evidence that this is the result of target chasing and has had limited impact on educational outcomes. The limited impact of aid on education should not be surprising. At best, aid to education has provided only a small supplement to an already broken system. This paper proposes a framework for the analysis of the motivations of aid programmes, and then employs this framework to examine different approaches to education and the parameters according to which they have succeeded or failed. Using the framework to explain why prevailing approaches have resulted in the outcomes realized, the paper then examines the possibility for an alternative approach to be taken to intervention in education, one which attempts to change the wa...","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"284-304"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3362/1755-1986.15-00032","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41354467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Value chain development (VCD) with smallholders forms a central element of the poverty reduction strategies of governments and NGOs in developing countries. Nevertheless, too little is known about how VCD interventions are designed and implemented, the approaches and tools used, and the challenges faced in the process. This paper helps to fill this gap with evidence from six cases in Uganda. For each case, data was collected from interviews with NGOs, government organizations, buyers, and smallholder business organizations. Results indicate that use of available VCD guides and tools facilitated productive partnerships among chain actors, engagement with support organizations, and feedback mechanisms on intervention processes. Results also challenge NGOs, government agencies, and researchers to better understand the circumstances of resource-poor chain actors, the implications of VCD on gender relations, and the cultural and business context when designing and implementing VCD. This calls for stakeholders to employ a broader approach to VCD, using a combination of available and new tools, and to seek out deeper collaboration with key actors within and outside the value chain.
{"title":"Approaches and tools for inclusive value chain development: lessons from Uganda for improved impact","authors":"D. Naziri, S. Mayanja, J. Ssemwanga, J. Donovan","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.00036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.00036","url":null,"abstract":"Value chain development (VCD) with smallholders forms a central element of the poverty reduction strategies of governments and NGOs in developing countries. Nevertheless, too little is known about how VCD interventions are designed and implemented, the approaches and tools used, and the challenges faced in the process. This paper helps to fill this gap with evidence from six cases in Uganda. For each case, data was collected from interviews with NGOs, government organizations, buyers, and smallholder business organizations. Results indicate that use of available VCD guides and tools facilitated productive partnerships among chain actors, engagement with support organizations, and feedback mechanisms on intervention processes. Results also challenge NGOs, government agencies, and researchers to better understand the circumstances of resource-poor chain actors, the implications of VCD on gender relations, and the cultural and business context when designing and implementing VCD. This calls for stakeholders to employ a broader approach to VCD, using a combination of available and new tools, and to seek out deeper collaboration with key actors within and outside the value chain.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"323-341"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3362/1755-1986.00036","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44429326","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-12-01DOI: 10.3362/1755-1986.2017.28-4ED
J. Donovan, J. Hellin, D. Stoian
Over the past 15 or so years authors in Enterprise Development and Microfinance (EDM) have written extensively about the design and implementation of microfinance and its use by the poor, whether to respond to shocks and changing contexts, invest in education, or advance livelihood goals (Figure 1 overleaf). Coverage has ranged from the specifics of designing microfinance schemes, access to them by the poorest, and their impact on wellbeing and poverty. While the debate on microfinance is far from over, it is true that discussions have been more concerned with managing, saving, borrowing, and moving money, than about building viable businesses. Business development involving the poor, which in many cases focuses on rural small and medium enterprises (SMEs), requires us to address the demand for a range of services which, taken together, enhance the capacities of rural SMEs. Such services need to be affordable and reliable, and address the productive and business needs of SMEs, from small-scale processors to multi-tiered agricultural cooperatives. The issues are complex with lingering questions about how different types of service providers, from government agencies and NGOs to various private sector agents, can better design their services; and how, through adequate delivery mechanisms, the capacity and willingness of SMEs to employ such services can be strengthened. In this Editorial, we discuss some of the key issues for advancing rural entrepreneurship via improved services and provide an outlook for future discussions.
{"title":"Editorial: Revisiting the role of business, technical, and financial services in fostering rural entrepreneurship","authors":"J. Donovan, J. Hellin, D. Stoian","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.2017.28-4ED","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.2017.28-4ED","url":null,"abstract":"Over the past 15 or so years authors in Enterprise Development and Microfinance (EDM) have written extensively about the design and implementation of microfinance and its use by the poor, whether to respond to shocks and changing contexts, invest in education, or advance livelihood goals (Figure 1 overleaf). Coverage has ranged from the specifics of designing microfinance schemes, access to them by the poorest, and their impact on wellbeing and poverty. While the debate on microfinance is far from over, it is true that discussions have been more concerned with managing, saving, borrowing, and moving money, than about building viable businesses. Business development involving the poor, which in many cases focuses on rural small and medium enterprises (SMEs), requires us to address the demand for a range of services which, taken together, enhance the capacities of rural SMEs. Such services need to be affordable and reliable, and address the productive and business needs of SMEs, from small-scale processors to multi-tiered agricultural cooperatives. The issues are complex with lingering questions about how different types of service providers, from government agencies and NGOs to various private sector agents, can better design their services; and how, through adequate delivery mechanisms, the capacity and willingness of SMEs to employ such services can be strengthened. In this Editorial, we discuss some of the key issues for advancing rural entrepreneurship via improved services and provide an outlook for future discussions.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"251-254"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3362/1755-1986.2017.28-4ED","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46411653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-12-01DOI: 10.3362/1755-1986.2017.HAW
Hailai Abera Weldeslassie
Microfinance has broadened rapidly since its inception in the late 1970s. However, scholars have divergent views on whether and how much it helps to lift the poor from the economic quagmire. This research investigates the assessment of the impact of participation in microfinance. It is difficult to disentangle the impact on poverty reduction of microfinance as an anti-poverty intervention scheme and establish a causal relationship between participation and poverty indicators, because of unobserved heterogeneity and reverse causality problems. Using the 2009 data set, first, we estimated propensity scores for participation on several pre-treatment variables. We then matched clients and non-clients on the basis of these variables. Next, we estimated the average treatment effect, considering participation as a treatment, and participants as the treated group. Finally, we employed different matching methods to establish the robustness of the utilized methods. In addition, for the year (2007 and 2009) panel data sets, we used the fixed effect (FE) and random effect (RE) panel data analysis techniques to fully address the two major problems stated above. Although we found significant impact of microfinance on household productive assets, its impact on fixed assets and monthly expenditure is insignificant. The propensity score matching and the panel data analyses identified microfinance as having direct temporary effects on household productive assets but limited (no) effect on households’ fixed assets and monthly expenditures.
{"title":"Does microfinance help to reduce poverty in Ethiopia? Propensity score matching impact analysis.","authors":"Hailai Abera Weldeslassie","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.2017.HAW","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.2017.HAW","url":null,"abstract":"Microfinance has broadened rapidly since its inception in the late 1970s. However, scholars have divergent views on whether and how much it helps to lift the poor from the economic quagmire. This research investigates the assessment of the impact of participation in microfinance. It is difficult to disentangle the impact on poverty reduction of microfinance as an anti-poverty intervention scheme and establish a causal relationship between participation and poverty indicators, because of unobserved heterogeneity and reverse causality problems. Using the 2009 data set, first, we estimated propensity scores for participation on several pre-treatment variables. We then matched clients and non-clients on the basis of these variables. Next, we estimated the average treatment effect, considering participation as a treatment, and participants as the treated group. Finally, we employed different matching methods to establish the robustness of the utilized methods. In addition, for the year (2007 and 2009) panel data sets, we used the fixed effect (FE) and random effect (RE) panel data analysis techniques to fully address the two major problems stated above. Although we found significant impact of microfinance on household productive assets, its impact on fixed assets and monthly expenditure is insignificant. The propensity score matching and the panel data analyses identified microfinance as having direct temporary effects on household productive assets but limited (no) effect on households’ fixed assets and monthly expenditures.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"255-283"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3362/1755-1986.2017.HAW","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43959282","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-01DOI: 10.3362/1755-1986.17-000JK
Judith E. Krauss
Given growing concerns regarding the chocolate sector’s long-term future, more private-sector, public-sector, and civil-society stakeholders have become involved in initiatives seeking to make cocoa more ‘sustainable’. However, the commercial, socio-economic, and environmental priorities they associate with the omnipresent, yet polysemic term diverge considerably: while transforming the crop into a more viable livelihood for growers is essential for some, others prioritize the crop’s links to global environmental challenges through agroforestry. A third dimension encompasses commercial concerns related to securing supply. The article explores how tensions and synergies manifest in these divergent understandings of what cocoa sustainability is and is to entail, which diverse civil-society, public-sector, and private-sector stakeholders bring to the table. It argues that priorities associated with ‘cocoa sustainability’ diverge, yielding synergies, tensions, and trade-offs. This article draws on the author’s in-depth doctoral fieldwork in cocoa sustainability initiatives incorporating environmental measures, which encompassed semi-structured interviews, focus-group discussions, documentary analysis, and participant observation in Latin America and Europe. It proposes the ‘constellations of priorities’ model as an instrument to capture how the priorities driving cocoa stakeholders variously dovetail, intersect, and collide. Particularly against the backdrop of the sector’s brewing crisis, the paper suggests that stakeholders systematically assess their and other actors’ socio-economic, environmental, and commercial priorities as part of the equitable engagement required to transform the sector and attain genuine cocoa sustainability.
{"title":"What is cocoa sustainability? Mapping stakeholders’ socio-economic, environmental, and commercial constellations of priorities","authors":"Judith E. Krauss","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.17-000JK","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.17-000JK","url":null,"abstract":"Given growing concerns regarding the chocolate sector’s long-term future, more private-sector, public-sector, and civil-society stakeholders have become involved in initiatives seeking to make cocoa more ‘sustainable’. However, the commercial, socio-economic, and environmental priorities they associate with the omnipresent, yet polysemic term diverge considerably: while transforming the crop into a more viable livelihood for growers is essential for some, others prioritize the crop’s links to global environmental challenges through agroforestry. A third dimension encompasses commercial concerns related to securing supply. The article explores how tensions and synergies manifest in these divergent understandings of what cocoa sustainability is and is to entail, which diverse civil-society, public-sector, and private-sector stakeholders bring to the table. It argues that priorities associated with ‘cocoa sustainability’ diverge, yielding synergies, tensions, and trade-offs. This article draws on the author’s in-depth doctoral fieldwork in cocoa sustainability initiatives incorporating environmental measures, which encompassed semi-structured interviews, focus-group discussions, documentary analysis, and participant observation in Latin America and Europe. It proposes the ‘constellations of priorities’ model as an instrument to capture how the priorities driving cocoa stakeholders variously dovetail, intersect, and collide. Particularly against the backdrop of the sector’s brewing crisis, the paper suggests that stakeholders systematically assess their and other actors’ socio-economic, environmental, and commercial priorities as part of the equitable engagement required to transform the sector and attain genuine cocoa sustainability.","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"228-250"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3362/1755-1986.17-000JK","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48861503","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-01DOI: 10.3362/1755-1986.15-00043
R. Kamp
This article revisits some of the most often held assumptions around smallholder finance, and presents field experiences and research challenging these ‘myths’ around supply and demand of agri-finance. On the credit supply side, the article finds that smallholders do not necessarily lack access to ‘finance’, but do not use formal bank loans much and rely more on informal lending. It argues that the characterization of informal moneylenders as usurious is overly simplistic, and sees clear market mechanisms at play in informal lending. The article also presents evidence that the agri sector is riskier than others sectors. On the demand side, evidence suggests that farmers do not always want to apply fertilizer to their farms, or even take out a loan if it were available. Finally, the opinion that farmers deserve a fair (low) interest rate is investigated. In conclusion, the article provides recommendations to policymakers and project designers about approaching agri-finance as a new product in an existing m...
{"title":"Six myths of farmer finance","authors":"R. Kamp","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.15-00043","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.15-00043","url":null,"abstract":"This article revisits some of the most often held assumptions around smallholder finance, and presents field experiences and research challenging these ‘myths’ around supply and demand of agri-finance. On the credit supply side, the article finds that smallholders do not necessarily lack access to ‘finance’, but do not use formal bank loans much and rely more on informal lending. It argues that the characterization of informal moneylenders as usurious is overly simplistic, and sees clear market mechanisms at play in informal lending. The article also presents evidence that the agri sector is riskier than others sectors. On the demand side, evidence suggests that farmers do not always want to apply fertilizer to their farms, or even take out a loan if it were available. Finally, the opinion that farmers deserve a fair (low) interest rate is investigated. In conclusion, the article provides recommendations to policymakers and project designers about approaching agri-finance as a new product in an existing m...","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"212-227"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46148389","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2017-09-01DOI: 10.3362/1755-1986.16-00014
Adams Abdulai, D. Tewari
The changing landscape of the microfinance industry, which is characterized by a decline in donor funding, has reignited debates regarding the ability of microfinance institutions to serve the poor while remaining sustainable. In this study, we examined the relationship between outreach and sustainability in the context of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and analysed the determinants of sustainability using data from 71 microfinance institutions (MFIs) across 10 countries. By applying correlation analysis and fixed effects regression, we found mixed evidence of a trade-off between the depth of outreach and operational self-sustainability. Furthermore, the results show that interest rate is a major determinant for MFI sustainability, which is consistent with the institutionalist view. Factors that significantly influence the sustainability of MFIs in SSA are the average loan size as a percentage of gross national income, gross loan portfolio, portfolio at risk, operating expenses to assets ratio, governance effec...
{"title":"Trade-off between outreach and sustainability of microfinance institutions: evidence from sub-Saharan Africa","authors":"Adams Abdulai, D. Tewari","doi":"10.3362/1755-1986.16-00014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3362/1755-1986.16-00014","url":null,"abstract":"The changing landscape of the microfinance industry, which is characterized by a decline in donor funding, has reignited debates regarding the ability of microfinance institutions to serve the poor while remaining sustainable. In this study, we examined the relationship between outreach and sustainability in the context of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and analysed the determinants of sustainability using data from 71 microfinance institutions (MFIs) across 10 countries. By applying correlation analysis and fixed effects regression, we found mixed evidence of a trade-off between the depth of outreach and operational self-sustainability. Furthermore, the results show that interest rate is a major determinant for MFI sustainability, which is consistent with the institutionalist view. Factors that significantly influence the sustainability of MFIs in SSA are the average loan size as a percentage of gross national income, gross loan portfolio, portfolio at risk, operating expenses to assets ratio, governance effec...","PeriodicalId":39025,"journal":{"name":"Enterprise Development and Microfinance","volume":"28 1","pages":"162-181"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2017-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3362/1755-1986.16-00014","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41567375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：