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News item 16-2-2008 |
Minister of Finance Dr. Ram
Sharan Mahat Thursday said
that micro-finance was an
effective tool to alleviate
poverty prevalent in any
underdeveloped and
developing country.
Addressing the inaugural
session of the first
'Micro-finance Summit Nepal
2008', he said that
microfinance had proved
popular in empowering women
with the credits and loans
scheme. He said that such
schemes would encourage
habit of saving among the
women which would help them
to be independent.
Assessing
the role of micro-finance
institutions in poverty
alleviation, he also
promised to provide tax
concessions to them. He said
that micro-finance was most
often targeted to women, who
maintain a recovery rate by
99 per cent, to any
financial institution. "The
micro-finance scheme is
basically developed in the
underdeveloped and
developing countries with
the aim to empower people
living below poverty line
but the scheme has also been
imitated by some highly
developed countries,? he
added.
Krishna Bahadur
Manandhar, acting governor
at
Nepal Rastra bank, said
that micro-finance had been
playing vital role in
alleviating poverty. He said
that micro-finance had been
found most successful among
other poverty alleviation
tools. He said that NRB had
already started Deprived
Sector Lending Scheme in
development banks and some
microfinance institutions to
widen poor people's access
to credit. "The concept of
micro-finance is practically
playing a supportive role in
poverty alleviation and in
uplifting nation's economic
growth,? he said. Harihar
Dev Pant, president of
Summit Organising National
Committee, said that the
first Micro-credit Summit
held in Washington DC in
1997 targeted to make 100
million beneficiaries of
micro-finance which has been
achieved by 2006. He said
that the third micro-credit
summit held in Halifax of
Canada had set a target
increase the number of
micro-credit customers to
150 million by 2015. Pant
said that the lack of
physical infrastructure and
geographical complexity had
centralized the
micro-finance to Terai and
some urban parts of the
country and stressed on
decentralization towards
hilly and Himalayan region
where the majority of
population was surviving in
extreme poverty.
Read more about this
microfinance summit
Other finance
articles:
micro finance cuts
poverty (16-2-2008)
Nepal hosts micro
finance summit
(11-1-2008)
Microfinance eased the
impact of Maoist
conflict (4-1-2007)
Microfinance success
story from Bangladesh
inspires Nepali women
(2-1-2007)
micro-credits can solve
poverty
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