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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Microfinance

News, comment and features on microfinance, microcredit, microinsurance, microbanking, mobile banking and financial inclusion in the developing world

June 2024

  • A man at the front of a crowd smiles and waves

    Under threat of jail, microfinance pioneer vows to keep lending to poorest Bangladeshis

    Muhammad Yunus tells the Guardian charges against him are politically motivated, and expresses concern about personal attacks from politicians

April 2024

  • Larry Elliott

    Economics viewpoint
    At last G20 is showing how to finance an assault on poverty

    Larry Elliott
    Brazilian president Lula’s proposals have the backing of the World Bank. Now we need action

October 2023

  • Nhu Laen’s widow, Kwak Nga, shows a photograph of her husband, who took his own life in 2022 while the couple owed thousands to LOLC Cambodia, a microfinance company.

    ‘I am afraid I will kill myself, like my husband’: spotlight on loan firms in Cambodia after Indigenous suicides

    Microfinance was meant to reduce poverty, but borrowers allege they have been victims of ‘predatory’ loans and repayment tactics, which have led to desperation and deaths

October 2022

  • A man using a mobile phone

    ‘Traumatising’: how rogue digital loan apps in Kenya intimidate borrowers

    Kenyans unable to access bank loans are being harassed and ‘debt-shamed’ by unlicensed online lenders if they default

May 2021

  • Mangrove forests on the Lamu archipelago, Kenya.

    Green growth: the save-the-mangrove scheme reaping rewards for women in Kenya

    A community project on the Lamu archipelago trains women in preserving this vital ecosystem and provides business loans

January 2020

  • Sir Fazle Hasan Abed gave up a job as an executive with Shell to tackle poverty in Bangladesh.

    Sir Fazle Hasan Abed obituary

    Founder of Brac, one of the world’s largest non-profit development organisations, which began its work in Bangladesh

December 2019

  • Women in a market in the Magazine Wharf area of Freetown, Sierra Leone

    Microfinance lenders in Sierra Leone accused of 'payday loan' interest rates

    Borrowers have accused NGOs of charging unfairly high interest, demanding rapid payback, and reporting debts to the police

July 2019

  • An employee of a bank checks an identity document via mobile phone as he sells accounts on the street in Khayelitsha, a township outside Cape Town, South Africa

    Melinda Gates pushes G7 to close digital gender gap in Africa

    World leaders to back call to help rural poor and women access mobile banking

October 2018

  • Micro finance payments in India.

    Women's rights and gender equality
    Loan sharks are circling for poor Indian debtors failed by microfinance

    Navjot Sangwan
    A growing body of research suggests that micro-credit, the darling of international development, costs borrowers dear

June 2017

  • A rickshaw driver transports passengers past the Rumi Darwaza gateway, in Lucknow, where a microcredit programme helps drivers to buy their own rickshaws.

    Women's rights and gender equality
    'I finally own something': wives of Indian rickshaw drivers steer the finances

    A microcredit scheme that helps rickshaw workers to buy their vehicles hands the purse strings to women, considering them more reliable at repaying debts

September 2016

  • Women fill jugs of water from a tap in Kaynabayonga, DRC

    Water in development
    Eight ideas to fund access to water and toilets for all by 2030

    Some $114bn is needed each year to reach the SDG on water and sanitation. Our panel of experts share their ideas on how to raise the money

July 2016

  • Farmer Carlos Lopez with lettuce crops damaged by the lack of rain

    Extreme weather
    From Colombia to Côte d’Ivoire: how to help farmers tackle climate change? – event

    Join us for a seminar on 21 September 2016, 6pm-8.30pm BST, to discuss how to support the developing world’s farmers and help end rural poverty

March 2016

  • Seamstress Chrystelle Oga runs a tailoring shop in Benin using by loan from a microfinance institution.

    Do lenders make clear the risks of microfinance loans?

    Elisabeth Rhyne
    A study of people taking out microfinance loans in Benin, Georgia, Pakistan and Peru has found that too many people are ‘borrowing blind’

February 2016

  • Protesters in Moscow demand terms of their loan agreements to be renegotiated due to the rouble’s weakening.

    New East network
    Russia's debt collectors turn violent as recession leaves 11.5m in debt

    From firebombs to bomb threats, bailiffs resort to fear tactics as debt skyrockets and millions fall behind on payments. RFE/RL reports

January 2016

  • A mother holds her baby at Kisenyi health centre

    Ugandan financial fraud victims: still fighting for compensation years later

    Eight years on, 3,000 Ugandans are living with the consequences of investing money into a fraudulent scheme that promised them 54% interest

December 2015

  • Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan with their daughter Max, in an image posted on his Facebook page.

    Love from mom and dad … but who gains from Mark Zuckerberg’s $45bn gift?

    Linsey McGoey
    The new era of philanthrocapitalism won’t directly help the poor. Instead the money will be moved to a new investment firm – with the aim of making more money

November 2015

  • World currencies. financial exclusion

    Who saves the least money? Financial exclusion around the world - interactive

    Who borrows the most from family and which country does the most online shopping? Turn your sound up to hear the introduction to the map

October 2015

  • Women in India sit around a desk as another woman counts money

    Giving women control over their finances

    Including more women from the developing world in the global economy can help them and their communities escape poverty – so what role should the private sector and civil society play?

September 2015

  • Liberian mobile phone dealers showcase their products in Monrovia. Millions of new consumers are accessing insurance through mobile platforms.

    Investments with social benefit doing big business in developing countries

  • Rwanda school children

    Reimagining scholarships: can big data reduce child absenteeism?

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