Microfinance: Small is Beautiful

July 20, 2010
St. Paul's Institute
By Tom Sanderson, Five Talents UK Director

The Five Talents' microfinance programme in Sudan is a fantastic example of a small programme reaching places where commercial (for-profit) microfinance or formal banking services are unlikely to reach for many years to come. There is no electricity, no mobile phone signal, no tarmac roads, no piped water and no fair opportunity to save or borrow cash. The entrepreneurs are now selling coca cola in the village (is that progress?!), opening tea-shops, stocking their general kiosks, tailoring, carpentry, hair-dressing and much more - building the local economy and social cohesion at the same time.