Another brush with Microfinance

Yesterday I had another brush with Microfinance. This time I managed to get a greater insight in to the whole thing. Prof. Jonathan Morduch gave a talk on "Microfinance: The next Capitalist revolution?" He is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at New York University and a leading academic authority on Microfinance. He teaches international development with a focus on the spread of financial access to under-served populations.

Few issues that came out are:
1. Consumption loans and their impact on the industry
2. Returns expected from the organized MFIs
3. Commercial finance being available to MFIs and lastly
4. Role of MFIs

Here's the linkage to the official coverage on ISB website

I managed to catch up with the Basix guys after the talk and gathered more information. I see a great potential for innovation in this sector. Newer developments in Mobile phone technology such as secured wallet can aid easy delivery of services and also reduce costs drastically.

I see a great potential for venture capital model for MFIs. I see myself doing something in this area in the coming year