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December 13, 2004
Microfinance Program Seeks to Expand its Impact
The Grameen Bank has helped expand the model of using small seed funding as a mechanism for pulling people in developing countries out of poverty through self-employment and entrepreneurship. The National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship reports on a new effort by the non-profit Grameen Foundation, to attract much broader financial support to help grow microfinance institutions (MFIs) around the world.
"The foundation has produced a new report Tapping the Financial Markets for Microfinance that offers a primer on how banks and other large financial institutions can effectively back micro-entrepreneurs. A huge potential market exists. Grameen suggests that global demand for microfinance exceeds $300 billion, yet only $4 billion is now expended in these markets. This huge gap can only be filled by major financial markets, and the report details a host of ways that investors effectively and profitably work in the field of microenterprise."
The microfinance movement has taken root in places around the world including India, Bangladesh, parts of Africa, the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. It is offering a market approach to poverty, which empowers recipients to take some self-control of the economic futures. This new initiative by Grameen seeks to integrate the microfinance movement into the mainstream financial markets.
Posted December 13, 2004 05:42 AM
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at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. He consults with a variety of businesses on start-up and growth related issues, and with larger corporations on re-establishing entrepreneurial cultures within their organizations. Dr. Cornwall's current research interests include entrepreneurial finance and entrepreneurial ethics. He has authored or co-authored four books.
