The idea is beautiful. By giving small, low-cost loans to the poor, entrepreneurial potential may be unleashed. Profitable local businesses can lead to prosperity to the poor and to the community. World poverty can be ended. There are inspiring stories and photographs on how a mere $100 loan can change the life of a poor. Royalty and celebrity alike lends support to this good course. Money in the form of institutional and personal investment as well as donation pours into the microfinance industry. Marketing campaigns target on our good human nature, letting us to see how poverty can be rid of one family at a time. Would you want to help ending poverty? And at the same time receive a return on your investment?
Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus also known as the father of microfinance once said in an interview (2011 New York Times), “I have never imagined that one day microcredit would give rise to its own breed of loan sharks. But it has.”
Hugh Sinclair – author of this book – who has worked in the microfinance industry from ground up gives a very different account on what this industry really looks like from the inside. He has worked at a microfinance institution that distributes loans to the poor in South America and Africa. He has seen how high the interest rate could be (in excess of 100%). How in real life, many of the loans go into consumption (like buying a TV). That because the investment comes from foreign countries, the money eventually gets out of the community leaving the poor poorer. And how operationally inefficient these institutions can be with high salaries and overheads, commercial contracts going to relatives and friends. He has seen the misalignment between the reality and the vision and mission statements like the one illustrated below.
To help the women in […] to relieve their poverty via self-employment, providing microfinance and technical assistance, while respecting their culture and human condition.
To be a self-sufficient microfinance institution with the principal objectives of poverty alleviation and the comprehensive development of the region.
Sinclair then moved up and worked in a Dutch microcredit fund management firm. He has seen first hand how fund coming from the investors is channeled to the microfinance institutions with little due diligence. At times, even when the fund managers know something is wrong with the microfinance institutions, so long as there is a good profit potential, they turn a blind eyes to the issues on the ground. What about ending poverty? Does it really matter when the investors are getting a return?
Sinclair tried to expose these irregularities, with the help of the rating agencies, even directly to the investors. To his surprise, not even the investors want to listen to or action when the facts are laid clear on the table. Meanwhile, with his passion of genuinely wanting to help the poor, again and again he was fired from his jobs. The latest resulted in a Dutch court case.
That fortnight was tense. I hardly slept. Should I never have embarked on this battle in the first place? A 99 percent chance of success is also a 1 percent chance of failure. Taking on the beast is a noble idea, but had David missed Goliath with that fateful catapult shot, the story would probably not have made it into the Bible. Professionally the situation could also be quite unpleasant. How would I explain this to a future employer?
With all the evidence he has gathered throughout the years, he has turned into an activist. He has become the ‘heretic’ voice on the microfinance industry that is seemingly corrupted from the investors to the major financial institutions, from the fund managers to the microfinance institutions. There is a clear lack of regulation. Self regulation is oxymoron. Sinclair’s final breakthrough is getting Times‘s attention. An article on this very topic was published revealing the ugly side of the sector to the public.
So, what is the problem with microfinance?
The problem is neither that the entire microfinance sector is evil, nor that the basic model is fatally flawed. It is that greed, lack of oversight, recklessness in investing other people’s money, and ill-aligned incentives have allowed large parts of the sector to ignore the actual impact they are having on actual poverty reduction.
There are a few enlightened MFIs and funds that do actually benefit the poor […] Ethical funds do exist – they’re just hard to find. The model does work.
I enjoy reading Confessions of a Microfinance Heretic. Part of the book reads like a diary of Sinclair’s adventure to the developing countries. Part of the book reads like a detective story as the author gathers evidence against the entire sector. Although majority of the book talks about what does not work in this sector, there are some heartwarming stories whereby they show that when done right, microfinance does help the poor.
Sinclair’s approach is thorough. From the investors and the intermediaries to the poor, looking at the operational, political, and social angles, working through the legal system, the journalists, and eventually as an activist – I truly admire the author’s courage to speak up and telling the world that something is not right about the current state of microfinance.
This book may open up your eyes, like it does to mine.
Visit the author’s microfinance site here: http://www.microfinancetransparency.com/
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (July 9, 2012)
ISBN-10: 1609945182
ISBN-13: 978-1609945183