This document provides an overview of microfinancing, including its origins and impact. Key points include:
- Microfinancing involves providing small loans to poor individuals who lack access to traditional banking. This allows them to start businesses and lift themselves out of poverty.
- Professor Yunus founded the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh in 1976, pioneering the microfinancing model. It now has over 6 million borrowers, most of whom are women.
- Studies show microfinancing increases household savings and income, and shifts borrowing away from moneylenders toward more formal sources.
- India has promoted microfinancing through development banks, encouraging NGOs and self-help groups to distribute loans to the