17 January, 2009
Microfinance for Students
By Tamsin Harriman at the Common Interest Foundation
One important way to combat poverty is to ensure that the children of poor people are able to educate themselves, and thus have the opportunity of a better future for themselves and their families. With this in mind, many MFIs ask their borrowers to promise to send all of their school age children to school as a condition of receiving MFI services. Some are taking it even further and providing services especially for students.
An organization called Qifang in China is providing a peer-to-peer lending service for collateral-free student loans. From the article, "A good education is a stepping stone to a better life. That's just as true in China as it is anywhere else, but attending university requires financial resources that many Chinese students, especially those coming from poorer rural areas, don't have." In order to attend university, students usually borrow from family members, since bank loans for education are difficult to apply for and hard to get. Thus the founders of Qifang decided to create this service to allow students easier access to needed funds for school. Loans through the site can be quite small, and can cover anything from a new laptop to tuition to an extra class.
Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has also started to provide services for its members' children. Grameen, realizing the importance of a university education, now offers scholarships for the best students among its borrowers' children to go to university.
This is an interesting new area of microfinance and, I believe, a very promising one. Microfinance helps poor people to provide for their children, but microfinance education loans help those children to provide for themselves, and create a better future for themselves and their own children.
**************************************************
This year's Microfinance Forum to take place in Vienna on 19-20 March
Following the success of last year's Microfinance Forum, the second Microfinance Forum will take place this year in Vienna on March 19 and 20. This event is an opportunity for industry leaders in microfinance, including many mainstream financial institutions, to discuss trends, strategies, and other issues pertaining to microfinance. From the article: "Banks have started to consider a closer link between their micro-finance-oriented products and their 'normal' business. There is increasing commitment to microfinance, greater variety in microfinance products and a closer focus on the market. The upcoming premier World Private Banking conference in Vienna organized by Uniglobal Research will bring together top representatives of the microfinance and banking environment as well as microfinance networks from all around the world. This is the place to learn from and share strategies with other professionals as well as to extend your network."
This year's conference will include contributions from organizations as diverse as Deutsche Bank, Finca International, Habitat for Humanity and Zurich Insurance, among many others.
This is just another indication that mainstream financial institutions are beginning to focus much more on microfinance. The results of this conference should be interesting to see!
***************************************************
Finally, a quick note to say that I have really enjoyed writing for this blog and working for the Common Interest Foundation. Sadly, my internship is at an end, so I will no longer be a regular contributor to this blog (although you may see a post from me from time to time). I will be handing the blogging reigns to Common Interest's talented managing director, whose posts I'm sure will be excellent. Thank you to all of our readers who have read and commented on my posts!
--Tamsin
One important way to combat poverty is to ensure that the children of poor people are able to educate themselves, and thus have the opportunity of a better future for themselves and their families. With this in mind, many MFIs ask their borrowers to promise to send all of their school age children to school as a condition of receiving MFI services. Some are taking it even further and providing services especially for students.
An organization called Qifang in China is providing a peer-to-peer lending service for collateral-free student loans. From the article, "A good education is a stepping stone to a better life. That's just as true in China as it is anywhere else, but attending university requires financial resources that many Chinese students, especially those coming from poorer rural areas, don't have." In order to attend university, students usually borrow from family members, since bank loans for education are difficult to apply for and hard to get. Thus the founders of Qifang decided to create this service to allow students easier access to needed funds for school. Loans through the site can be quite small, and can cover anything from a new laptop to tuition to an extra class.
Grameen Bank in Bangladesh has also started to provide services for its members' children. Grameen, realizing the importance of a university education, now offers scholarships for the best students among its borrowers' children to go to university.
This is an interesting new area of microfinance and, I believe, a very promising one. Microfinance helps poor people to provide for their children, but microfinance education loans help those children to provide for themselves, and create a better future for themselves and their own children.
**************************************************
This year's Microfinance Forum to take place in Vienna on 19-20 March
Following the success of last year's Microfinance Forum, the second Microfinance Forum will take place this year in Vienna on March 19 and 20. This event is an opportunity for industry leaders in microfinance, including many mainstream financial institutions, to discuss trends, strategies, and other issues pertaining to microfinance. From the article: "Banks have started to consider a closer link between their micro-finance-oriented products and their 'normal' business. There is increasing commitment to microfinance, greater variety in microfinance products and a closer focus on the market. The upcoming premier World Private Banking conference in Vienna organized by Uniglobal Research will bring together top representatives of the microfinance and banking environment as well as microfinance networks from all around the world. This is the place to learn from and share strategies with other professionals as well as to extend your network."
This year's conference will include contributions from organizations as diverse as Deutsche Bank, Finca International, Habitat for Humanity and Zurich Insurance, among many others.
This is just another indication that mainstream financial institutions are beginning to focus much more on microfinance. The results of this conference should be interesting to see!
***************************************************
Finally, a quick note to say that I have really enjoyed writing for this blog and working for the Common Interest Foundation. Sadly, my internship is at an end, so I will no longer be a regular contributor to this blog (although you may see a post from me from time to time). I will be handing the blogging reigns to Common Interest's talented managing director, whose posts I'm sure will be excellent. Thank you to all of our readers who have read and commented on my posts!
--Tamsin
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