Symbiotics NewsWatch #212, 29 May 2012

May 29	Uganda: Why 60% of Small Businesses Do Not Need Credit But Financial Planning Many micro-business owners do not know the composition of profits on total sales. In most times, they will treat income from sales as profits. Source: Daily Monitor
May 24	Frontier Investments To Set Up $75Mn Fund Frontier Investments Group is planning to set up - Frontier Investment Fund, which will focus on emerging economies, with India as a priority. Source: Deal Curry
May 24	Mexico: Segmentation for Innovation - Understanding the Financial Service Needs of the Poor in Mexico In a perfect market for micro-financial intermediation, product offerings would reflect the distinct needs of a diverse clientele. An artichoke producer in Caraz, Peru would be able to access a loan with flexible repayment schedules to match his revenue stream around the harvest dates. Source: CGAP
May 24	Yes, Microfinance Does Work. Here's How... By now, anyone with an interest in microfinance or poverty alleviation has read the criticism. There are tragic crises in Andhra Pradesh, the regrettable stepping-down of Muhammad Yunus from Grameen, and provocative headlines in the media claiming to refute microcredit's effectiveness. However, I feel strongly that if readers listen only to the white noise, they'll do themselves and the microfinance industry a disservice and, more to the point, they'll be misled. Source: The Huffington Post, Blog
May 24	Ethiopia: World Bank Provides Funding to Unleash the Economic Potential of Women Entrepreneurs The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors today approved a US$50 million credit from the International Development Association (IDA*) for the Women Entrepreneur Development Project to help open doors for female entrepreneurs in Ethiopia and give them access to appropriate skills and employment opportunities to contribute to the country's economic growth. Source: AllAfrica
May 23	Measuring Success: Microcredit in Perspective We’ve always known that microcredit is not a panacea. During the heady days of the microcredit revolution in the 1980s and 90s, I was part of a veritable village of practitioners. It was a remarkable group of driven, passionate, and often iconoclastic individuals. We lived in our own Utopia, defining and inventing the concept of social enterprise. But even then we knew that our microcredit efforts weren’t perfect. Source: Center for Financial Inclusion Blog
May 22	India: Microfinance Bill introduced in Lok Sabha The government on Tuesday introduced the much-awaited legislation governing microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the Lok Sabha, seeking to empower the central bank to regulate the sector and provide an overarching legislative framework for it. Source: Livemint