Micro Credit

Schemes to help local people with small interest-free loans.

Microcredit is the extension of very small loans (microloans) to the unemployed, to poor entrepreneurs and to others living in poverty who are not bankable. These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimal qualifications to gain access to traditional credit. Microcredit is a part of microfinance, which is the provision of financial services to the very poor; apart from loans, it includes savings, microinsurance and other financial innovations. Microcredit is a financial innovation which originated in developing countries where it has successfully enabled extremely impoverished people (mostly women) to engage in self-employment projects that allow them to generate an income and, in many cases, begin to build wealth and exit poverty. Women have become the focus of many microcredit institutions and agencies worldwide. The reasoning behind this is the observation that loans to women tend to more often benefit the whole family than loans to men do. It has also been observed that giving women the control and the responsibility of small loans raises their socio-economic status, which is seen as a positive change to many of the current relationships of gender and class. However, there is an ongoing debate about whether microcredit loans have the power to truly change established political and economic relationships. Each micro credit business will be set up with all the facilities and support to make sure it has a long and successful life. Many of the projects have direct and indirect beneficiaries and many are designed to empower women in the local communities. Each of the beneficiaries works with us to decide a proposition, when that's been accepted, receivers get a Micro credit loan usually set up as about a one year interest free loan.

Source of Credit	Male	Female
Institutional Agricultural Development Bank Commercial Bank Other Non-institutional Friends and relatives Moneylenders Landlords Merchants	30.4 16.4 11.9 2.1 69.6 24.2 27.9 0.9 16.6	15.4 4.9 7.4 3.1 84.6 30.5 38.9 1.0 14.2

	Paid Job	Income Earning	Unpaid Work
All Nepal Male Female Rural Male Female Urban Male Female	19.6 32.1 7.3 18.7 30.6 6.9 28.2 46.4 11.1	36.8 44 29.8 38.9 44.9 31.2 24.2 34.3 14.7	43.7 23.9 63 43.3 24.4 61.9 47.5 19.2 74.2