Microcredit for Self-employed Disabled Persons in Developing Countries

This article explores the possibility of using microcredit as an instrument to promote economic empowerment among people who are specially challenged.

The paper highlights that:

• Majority of the advocates of microcredit for persons with disabilities seem not to be informed on the involved rules of the game?
• Microfinance community lack information on disability issues.

The authors argue that:

• Asymmetric information between microfinance institutions (MFIs) and the disabled population is probably the main hindrance for increased penetration of microcredit services to disabled persons;
• Disabled entrepreneurs who have the necessary resource base should be included as regular clients in mainstream MFIs or as regular members in self-helping microfinance systems like Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCA).

Finally, the paper presents a set of recommendations for donors, MFIs, disabled peoples organizations (DPOs) while drawing the following conclusions:

• Microfinance is about building permanent local financial institutions;
• Interest rate ceilings hurt poor people by making it harder for them to get credit;
• The role of government is to enable financial services, not to provide them directly;
• Donor funds should complement private capital, not compete with it;
• The key bottleneck is the shortage of strong institutions and managers.