Commercialization of Microfinance in Africa : Tapping the financial markets for microfinance, an empirical approach

Josphat M.Kiweu provides in this book a comprehensive overview of the funding for microfinance institutions (MFIs).He highlights that African MFIs are mainly financed by grants or highly subsidized loans from donor agencies. However, in the last 10 years there has been a rapid growth in funds that tend to be more commercially oriented.Using an empirical approach the book proceeds to address the question of what it takes for an MFI to be eligible to receive commercial finance, and why there is high concentration in a few individual MFIs.The book identifies the challenges and successes of attracting commercial capital from the financial markets to support rapid scaling up of microfinance.It is hoped the critical success factors for attracting vast reservoirs of commercial capital highlighted herein informs the trend in Africa, and also serves as a call to action to engage the mainstream financial community.The analysis in the book should help shed some light on potential financing strategies for MFIs in need of funds, and should be especially useful to investors,funding agencies,MFIs and practitioners in microfinance industry, or anyone else interested in accessing commercial fund.