Credit Unions and Microenterprises: The WOCCU Perspective

The paper outlines the importance of credit union institutional development in order to provide enhanced services to small and micro entrepreneurs.

Further, the paper recommends institutional development of credit unions in the area of safety and soundness, financial stabilization and savings mobilization:

• Improve regulation, supervisory and monitoring systems in order to protect members' savings by reducing risk caused by unsafe and unsound practices and/or failure to accumulate adequate institutional capital;
• Develop systems, procedures and controls which promote member confidence;
• Increase member savings by improving the quality and variety of savings products and services, their pricing and related marketing programmes.

Finally the author concludes that institutional development of credit unions is the first necessary step in generating greater operational capacity to provide needed services to SMEs. Once promotional activities begin to mobilize greater volumes of savings, new loan products must be simultaneously offered.