Well said, Clement. Nice to see a moment's respite from the self-flagellation and market apologists in this group. I work mainly in small-scale energy finance these days, but partnering around the world with Tier 3 and 1 MFIs. 'Commercialization', far from an epithet, is for us the holy grail. When exactly did this change in microenterprise finance/microcredit?
There are blindspots in the rearview mirror of the microfinance industry, to be sure. There are usurers, idiots and those just plainly out of their depth. But the apparently inexhaustible demand for credit, often attributed to manipulation or exploitation of vulnerable clients, is evidence too of its value - and obviously the value of appropriate savings and insurance even moreso.
My own experience tells me that commercialization, for its blindspots, is for the most part driving better and demand-driven products to more clients in more and more vulnerable markets. Perhaps it's a microcosm of the experience of globalization as a whole. Would any of the chicken lickens in this Group type on their Chinese-assembled iPads that globalization has been anything but a democratizing and wealth-generation boon, dragging hundreds of millions out of destitution? I would hope not. Far from perfect, microfinance is getting better at seeing what it misses
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Posted by: smmendelson@gmail.com
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