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A conference on Micro credit aims to help worlds poorest The conference of Halifax looked at various steps of using micro credit to help the world's needy. The innovative small loan system has helped millions of the world's poorest in Bangladesh to start their own business that too with out any collateral and often with only a small amount. The success of Grameen Bank has ignited the minds of many financers around the world who plan to use it as a means to ennoble the poor and alleviate poverty. Numerous examples have been cited at the conference. One is Grace Jefferies Aldridge who says that micro credit has helped keep her home business afloat. She needed a small loan of $ 7,500 to buy her inventory of children's toys. She could not get this loan from banks but was able to get it from INova credit union. According to stats of till 2003 around 81 million clients received micro credit. The repayment of loans was around 95 percent, according to the lenders of micro credit The conference has aimed to reach 175 million of the worlds poorest by 2015. This is basically to ensure that at least 100 million people will be alleviated from the poverty threshold, of living on a meager dollar a day. David Wheeler, the dean of management at Dalhousie University's, says the program needs to grow to help billions of the world's poorest people who do not have access to financial services. The effort is not to reach out to millions but is a concentrated effort that needs to be taken to the billions. This is because the traditional donor mentality of collaterals and risk factors of loans is not working. Corruption and many other ills face the present donor system. A new model for international development is needed and the world is turning to micro credit and microfinance as new models to empower the poor. Its success has been proved in the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh with its micro credit schemes having won Muhammad Yunus the Nobel Peace Prize. |
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