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The Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) is a core initiative in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Africa portfolio of programmes, which aims to reduce poverty and improve the quality of life of rural communities. A component of this programme is to help capitalise locally based enterprise development initiatives by stimulating the provision of and access to micro-finance in rural areas. Three sites have been selected to pilot the introduction of this and other IRDP activities. These are: Chimanimani (Zimbabwe), Chimoio (Mozambique) and Nyandeni (South Africa). As part of this initiative , the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) based in Pretoria has conducted an evaluation in three key sites of the IRDP to evaluate the implications of implementing a mico-finance scheme in these areas.
Africa is home to some of the poorest and vulnerable populations in the world. The ten poorest countries in the world are in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest incidence and greatest depth of poverty in the world. Fewer than one in five adults in Africa has access to the services of a formal or semi-formal financial institution. Microfinance in Africa is growing, though. A broad range of diverse institutions offer financial services to the poor and low-income clients in Africa. These include non-governmental organizations, non-banking financial institutions, cooperatives, credit unions, rural banks, Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs), postal financial institutions and an increasing number of commercial banks. Increasingly, technology is being used to expand microfinance outreach mobile phone banking is one such example. This book provides an overview of the microfinance sector in Africa, reviews the performance and impact of microfinance institutions in the region, and outlines some of the opportunities and challenges that African microfinance has on hand.
Based on the experience of selected countries, this paper offers a critical presentation of the development of the microfinance sector in Africa. The paper supports the view that microfinance institutions, especially those engaged in full financial intermediation, complement effectively the banking sector in extending financial services and successfully draw on the rich experience of community-based development and preexisting informal methods of financial intermediation in Africa. Growing linkages between microfinance institutions and the banking system and the dissemination of good practices by nongovernment organizations contribute to the sound development of the sector, supported by regulation and supervision by local authorities.
The purpose of the 'Microfinance Handbook' is to bring together in a single source guiding principles and tools that will promote sustainable microfinance and create viable institutions.
The aim of this study was to investigate how Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in South Africa balance sustainability with developmental objectives. Twelve semistructured, in-depth interviews were conducted with microfinance subject matter and microfinance institutions. The research found that commercialisation is not compatible with social impact as it leads to mission drift, which can be managed by an inclusive stakeholder governance structure. The trade-off between sustainability and social impact (outreach) was evident for commercial MFIs: while sustainability can be achieved through scale and cost management. In addition, MFIs achieve lower delinquency rate by implementing non-financial interventions such as client training and using group lending methodology that fosters social capital in the client base. The lack of a visible collaboration between MFIs has deprived the industry of a strong voice that can mobilise society to leverage the benefits of microfinance to help South Africa reduce inequalities. Despite the fact that regulatory restrictions concerning savings mobilisation for micro enterprise lenders are inhibiting product innovation and curtailing outreach, microfinance has proved to be a valuable tool that South Africa has not leveraged to alleviate poverty and reduce income inequalities.