Holding the Door Open : Facilitating Access to Microcredit in the Benin Social Fund
During preparation of the Benin Social Fund Project, all levels of society indicated that lack of access to credit was a major problem for poor people. At the same time, there was reluctance to put in a micro-credit component, as an assessment of t...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2012
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/03/6267100/holding-door-open-facilitating-access-microcredit-benin-social-fund http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11830 |
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okr-10986-118302021-04-23T14:02:57Z Holding the Door Open : Facilitating Access to Microcredit in the Benin Social Fund Elder, John Tovo, Maurizia ACCOUNTING ACCOUNTING PROCEDURES AUTONOMY BANKING SERVICES BENEFICIARIES CAPACITY BUILDING COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION DECISION MAKING FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION FINANCIAL SERVICES FINANCIAL SYSTEMS HEALTH INSURANCE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCOME INCOME GROUPS INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSURANCE INTERMEDIARIES LESSONS LEARNED LIQUIDITY MATCHING GRANTS MICROFINANCE OUTREACH PRIVATE FIRMS PROJECT PREPARATION RATES SAVINGS SAVINGS ACCOUNTS SOCIAL FUNDS SOCIAL INTERMEDIATION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE During preparation of the Benin Social Fund Project, all levels of society indicated that lack of access to credit was a major problem for poor people. At the same time, there was reluctance to put in a micro-credit component, as an assessment of this type of component in social funds had yielded mixed results. The Bank was already supporting the Second Rural Credit Project, providing technical support to a national association of cooperative savings and credit societies to increase the availability of credit. Nonetheless, the Government, having identified micro-credit as a priority, was keen to have micro-credit activities. To balance the somewhat conflicting points of view, the project team decided to develop financial intermediation services for low-income groups, without providing the actual credit. To take into account the heterogeneity of institutions involved in microfinance at the time, the unequal distribution of financial services in the country (especially urban/rural), and the characteristics of different types of clients, the microfinance component was divided into three sub-components, two dealing with formal financial systems, the other with informal ones. The project has been able to fill a gap between poor households and formal credit sources. Critical for the success were the already-existing formal credit organizations that offered financial services relevant to the needs of poor groups. While expertise on microfinance is hard to find, results suggest that intermediation only works where credit is actually available, in a form usable by the target population. Notably, targets should be adjusted to focus on what is important to the beneficiaries. 2012-08-13T16:08:17Z 2012-08-13T16:08:17Z 2002-03 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/03/6267100/holding-door-open-facilitating-access-microcredit-benin-social-fund http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11830 English Social Funds Innovation Updates; Vol. 2, No. 3 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Brief Publications & Research Africa Benin |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
ACCOUNTING ACCOUNTING PROCEDURES AUTONOMY BANKING SERVICES BENEFICIARIES CAPACITY BUILDING COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION DECISION MAKING FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION FINANCIAL SERVICES FINANCIAL SYSTEMS HEALTH INSURANCE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCOME INCOME GROUPS INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSURANCE INTERMEDIARIES LESSONS LEARNED LIQUIDITY MATCHING GRANTS MICROFINANCE OUTREACH PRIVATE FIRMS PROJECT PREPARATION RATES SAVINGS SAVINGS ACCOUNTS SOCIAL FUNDS SOCIAL INTERMEDIATION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE |
| spellingShingle |
ACCOUNTING ACCOUNTING PROCEDURES AUTONOMY BANKING SERVICES BENEFICIARIES CAPACITY BUILDING COMMUNITIES COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION DECISION MAKING FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS FINANCIAL INTERMEDIATION FINANCIAL SERVICES FINANCIAL SYSTEMS HEALTH INSURANCE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INCOME INCOME GROUPS INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT INSURANCE INTERMEDIARIES LESSONS LEARNED LIQUIDITY MATCHING GRANTS MICROFINANCE OUTREACH PRIVATE FIRMS PROJECT PREPARATION RATES SAVINGS SAVINGS ACCOUNTS SOCIAL FUNDS SOCIAL INTERMEDIATION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE Elder, John Tovo, Maurizia Holding the Door Open : Facilitating Access to Microcredit in the Benin Social Fund |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Benin |
| relation |
Social Funds Innovation Updates; Vol. 2, No. 3 |
| description |
During preparation of the Benin Social
Fund Project, all levels of society indicated that lack of
access to credit was a major problem for poor people. At the
same time, there was reluctance to put in a micro-credit
component, as an assessment of this type of component in
social funds had yielded mixed results. The Bank was already
supporting the Second Rural Credit Project, providing
technical support to a national association of cooperative
savings and credit societies to increase the availability of
credit. Nonetheless, the Government, having identified
micro-credit as a priority, was keen to have micro-credit
activities. To balance the somewhat conflicting points of
view, the project team decided to develop financial
intermediation services for low-income groups, without
providing the actual credit. To take into account the
heterogeneity of institutions involved in microfinance at
the time, the unequal distribution of financial services in
the country (especially urban/rural), and the
characteristics of different types of clients, the
microfinance component was divided into three
sub-components, two dealing with formal financial systems,
the other with informal ones. The project has been able to
fill a gap between poor households and formal credit
sources. Critical for the success were the already-existing
formal credit organizations that offered financial services
relevant to the needs of poor groups. While expertise on
microfinance is hard to find, results suggest that
intermediation only works where credit is actually
available, in a form usable by the target population.
Notably, targets should be adjusted to focus on what is
important to the beneficiaries. |
| format |
Publications & Research :: Brief |
| author |
Elder, John Tovo, Maurizia |
| author_facet |
Elder, John Tovo, Maurizia |
| author_sort |
Elder, John |
| title |
Holding the Door Open : Facilitating Access to Microcredit in the Benin Social Fund |
| title_short |
Holding the Door Open : Facilitating Access to Microcredit in the Benin Social Fund |
| title_full |
Holding the Door Open : Facilitating Access to Microcredit in the Benin Social Fund |
| title_fullStr |
Holding the Door Open : Facilitating Access to Microcredit in the Benin Social Fund |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Holding the Door Open : Facilitating Access to Microcredit in the Benin Social Fund |
| title_sort |
holding the door open : facilitating access to microcredit in the benin social fund |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2012 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2002/03/6267100/holding-door-open-facilitating-access-microcredit-benin-social-fund http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11830 |
| _version_ |
1764418147026206720 |