Welcome to the Monthly Public Awareness column with the Reserve Bank of Fiji. Last month we talked about investing and why you should invest. This month we focus on microfinance and what the Reserve Bank is doing in this area. We hope that you will find the article interesting and informative.
Many of us must have heard or read the word microfinance many a times, either on TV, in the newspapers, on the radio or through our friends and relatives. Although microfinance schemes and activities have been around for a very long time, it was only in the 1970’s that it really got international attention, largely because of the work of Dr. Mohammed Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. The Grameem Bank was founded on providing micro loans to the very poor and Dr. Yunus was able to show the world that the very poor, particularly women, were good at repaying their loans. The Bangladeshi women showed the world that although they were poor and without any real assets to pledge as collateral, they too were able to take out loans to improve the lives of their families and repay the loans in full.