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Microfinance Institutions vs Credit Cooperatives (SACCOs)
UPDATE: here are the differences between SACCOs, MFIs and banks summarized in a table format. Today we had an interesting discussion with one of the village elders in Korogocho – who also has a small...
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A new perspective on local markets -Kariobangi edition
The book “Portfolios of the Poor” (if you don’t know it, get it!) gave us an unprecedented account of how poor households live with less than 2 dollars a day. They discovered that contrarily from...
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The financial landscape of local markets
After last week’s post on microfinance vs credit cooperatives we want to talk more about the “socio-financial landscape” in urban economies in Kenya. The fieldwork we are doing in Kariobangi is telling...
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Stuart Rutherford on “Saving Up” and “Saving Down”
Saving up’, or setting money aside until it grows into a usefully large sum, is hard to do. An alternative is to ‘save down’ – to set money aside to repay a loan rather than build a pot of savings. A...
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Will high lending rates affect microfinance institutions in Kenya?
Yes, but probably in a positive way. If you have missed the recent news, the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) increased its key lending rate by a shocking 11.75% in only 3 months. Besides granting Njuguna...
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Micro-enterprise romanticism
David Roodman’s “Due Diligence” is probably the most compelling analysis of microfinance that I’ve read recently. I am about half way through the book, and I am loving it, but there is a recurring...
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Identifying growth-oriented enterprises: the “constrained gazelles”
I just noticed that my documents folder called “African development literature” is starting to look like a wildlife safari brochure: I have “Lions on the Move“, “Cheetahs VS Hippos“,”Are the Cheetahs...
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Ignacio Mas on social enterprises
It’s fuzzy, it’s trendy, and it’s not even clear how new the whole concept really is. The passions triggered by the new breed of enterprises we now call social may even appear to some almost cultish....
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“Chamas” in Kenya (aka self-help groups) – a Schumpeterian dead end?
Looking at some facts, I am inclined to say no: There are currently an estimated 300,000 groups, which collectively hold a combined asset base of at least Ksh300-billion. Popularly known as chamas by...
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Difference between credit cooperatives (SACCOs), microfinance institutions...
I’ve been asked about a zillion times what is the difference between savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs), microfinance institutions (MFIs) and commercial banks. I’ve never had time to reply...
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