This post is also available in: Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Code: ASS – 005 Author: Reda Mamari – International Consultant and Roland Rasoamanarivo – National Consultant Quantity: 1 Type: copy Status: 1/1
Introduction
The mainly rural population of Madagascar, an island off the south-east coast of Africa, is faced with extreme and increasing poverty. The large number of micro-entrepreneurs representing more than one quarter of the population are faced with no access to financial services outside of the usurious services of money-lenders. The BTM, a government owned bank with the largest network of branches, is in the process of being privatized and has stopped its very limited services to micro – entrepreneurs.
As a consequence of the aforementioned, the past few years have been the development of a number of microfinance institutions that have in a limited amount of time designed extensive services for micro-entrepreneurs. These institutions are on the whole very professional and dynamic and have embraced “best practices” as established by worldwide practitioners. The growth of these institutions has been impressive, with membership reaching over 22,000 micro-entrepreneurs.
Achievements have been substantial but much remains to be done to ensure that present microfinance institutions remain a powerful tool in the fight against poverty in Madagascar.
