microcredit
Sign in to saveMicrocredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically do not have access to traditional banking services due to a lack of collateral, steady employment, and a verifiable credit history. The primary aim of microcredit is to support entrepreneurship, facilitate self-employment, and alleviate poverty, particularly in low-income communities.
Article
19 sectionsContents
- History
- Modern microcredit
- Principles
- Economic principles
- Group lending
- Blockchain micro-lending
- Lending to women
- Examples
- Bangladesh
- India
- Pakistan
- United States
- Peer-to-peer lending over the Web
- Impact of microcredit
- Improvement
- See also
- References
- Further reading
- External links
Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to impoverished borrowers who typically do not have access to traditional banking services due to a lack of collateral, steady employment, and a verifiable credit history. The primary aim of microcredit is to support entrepreneurship, facilitate self-employment, and alleviate poverty, particularly in low-income communities.
The United Nations declared 2005 as the International Year of Microcredit to raise awareness of microfinance as a strategy for poverty reduction and financial inclusion. By the early 2010s, microcredit had expanded significantly across developing countries, with estimates suggesting that more than 200 million people were beneficiaries of microcredit services worldwide.