Date:01/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/01/stories/2006110102341800.htm

Business

Microloans top 110 m

WASHINGTON: The Global Microcredit Summit Campaign, which provides a crucial benchmark for the growth of the field, has reported that over 113 million clients have received tiny loans last year (2005) to start or expand small businesses. Of these clients, 82 million were among the world's poorest people.

Loans are used for a wide range of business activities, including low-tech ventures such as selling milk and eggs, making tortillas, or producing handicrafts, as well as high-tech enterprises like selling solar-powered cellular phone time in rural areas. The Nobel Laureate and Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus serves on the Microcredit Summit Campaign's Executive Committee.

Campaign officials said the new goals for 2015 — reaching 175 million of the world's poorest families with microcredit, affecting 875 million family members and ensuring 100 million families rise above the $1 a day threshold, lifting 500 million people out of extreme poverty — will be launched at the Global Microcredit Summit, which will be held on November 12 to 15 in Halifax, Canada.