Microcredit lifted 10 million Bangladeshis out of poverty between 1990 and 2008, according to a report.
The work of Grameen Bank and others helped many families to raise their income above 1,25 US dollar (knapt 7 DKR) a day, said the US-based Microcredit Summit Campaign according to BBC online Thursday.
The study follows recent criticism of microfinance, which works by providing small loans to people to invest in generating their own incomes.
Some experts argue the report may have missed the bigger picture. They say the success stories are comparatively few compared to the overall number of borrowers.
The report drew on a survey of more than 4.000 households by the Economic Research Group in Dhaka.
Floods in 1998 and the food crisis of 2008 caused millions of families to fall below the 1,25 dollar thres-hold (tærskel). However, even with these setbacks, nearly 10 million people rose above the poverty level.
KRITIKERE UENIGE
But Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, the chairman of PKSF which loans money to microcredit agencies in Bangladesh, says that his studies in 2006-2007 showed that only 7 percent of micro-borrowers were able to rise above the poverty line.
– In this latest study, only 10 per cent of people have moved up, leaving the other 90 per cent where they are. We cannot conclude that a whole lot has been achieved, he added.
Serious charges have emerged about microfinance borrowers taking on multiple loans and too much debt, coercive (håndfast/med tvang inddrivning af gæld) collection practices by microfinance staff, and even suicides among borrowers who were unable to meet their payments.
India’s multi-billion dollar industry recently was on the brink of a mass default (bankerot) until all the major banks in the country agreed to continue lending to microfinance firms.
