Who Needs Credit?

In recent years Micro-credit, the loan of small sums to people excluded from normal banking processes, has emerged as an important and growing issue in Development Policy. The result of disillusionment with the ability of either government agencies or international aid programmes to change the situation of the poor, Micro-credit has proved very successful. The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh alone lends to two million people. By reviewing the experience of Bangladesh, the country most closely associated with pioneering Micro-credit programmes, the book asks critical questions potentially overlooked in the rush to repeat the success of these ventures in other countries.