Microfinance Client and Funding Overview

This document presents an overview of the global microfinance sector by Microfinance Information Exchange for the year 2008.

The document presents data on global growth in microcredit, outreach patterns and changing funding structures. Highlights and key findings include:

• Access to microfinance has grown at a high annual rate of around 25% for the last few years, but the growth has been uneven;
• Biggest gaps are seen in Africa, with less than 1% of the poor covered by microfinance providers in many countries;
• Eastern Europe and Central Asia region carries the highest loan balances relative to local income and serves most clients through individual lending;
• South Asia serves over 90% of clients with small credits and uses more group-based models;
• South Asia has the most singular focus on outreach to women;
• Deposit funding provided the majority of funds for microcredit at the end of 2008;
• Debt funding patterns vary greatly among regions;
• Nascent microfinance regions bear lower funding costs than markets with more diversified funding.