Making money while doing good....
...or at least ok.
Micro credits. Unlike what some seem to think, this has nothing to do with giving small loans to student friends. Nor with giving credit to small people.
It means making loans available for people who can not lend from regular banks, but who need loans more than most other people in the world: the most underprivileged, the poorest. Or better- the one but poorest and the but nut most underprivileged.
I am working for a firm that sets up banks in 7 countries in the developing world- that is the pc name for what we used to call the third world...
We are working as any company would- we want to make money. We do that by selling those banks in a few years time with a profit. Those banks only make a profit, if we make sure that we get our loans back. And we only get our loans back, if we make sure that our clients are successful. So the banks we are setting up will do a lot of due diligence with our customers before we give them a loan, will give them technical support after the loan is given, and will make it easy for them to come back to the bank once they have paid back the loan. The banks will not give loans to the absolute 'have-nots', but to the 'have-just-a-little-bits'. Those people are more likely to pay their loans back, and thay can enlarge the scale they are working in and thereby employ other people. Hence the loan will affect hopefully many more people than just those who are getting the loan...
Some people say it is unethical what we are doing. We make money at the expense of the poor. Yes, we make money. But not on the expense of others. We give people an opportunity to borrow money- an opportunity normal banks do not give them. And we treat them like we treat other our customers in the 'developped world' as well- as smart individuals, who want to make a business, and who are not waiting to be patronized.
'Cause we are not doing development aid- we are taking our clients seriously, and we are taking ourselves seriously. And you can only do that by taking loans seriously. Not by making them a de facto gift, and thereby making people depending....
Micro credits. Unlike what some seem to think, this has nothing to do with giving small loans to student friends. Nor with giving credit to small people.
It means making loans available for people who can not lend from regular banks, but who need loans more than most other people in the world: the most underprivileged, the poorest. Or better- the one but poorest and the but nut most underprivileged.
I am working for a firm that sets up banks in 7 countries in the developing world- that is the pc name for what we used to call the third world...
We are working as any company would- we want to make money. We do that by selling those banks in a few years time with a profit. Those banks only make a profit, if we make sure that we get our loans back. And we only get our loans back, if we make sure that our clients are successful. So the banks we are setting up will do a lot of due diligence with our customers before we give them a loan, will give them technical support after the loan is given, and will make it easy for them to come back to the bank once they have paid back the loan. The banks will not give loans to the absolute 'have-nots', but to the 'have-just-a-little-bits'. Those people are more likely to pay their loans back, and thay can enlarge the scale they are working in and thereby employ other people. Hence the loan will affect hopefully many more people than just those who are getting the loan...
Some people say it is unethical what we are doing. We make money at the expense of the poor. Yes, we make money. But not on the expense of others. We give people an opportunity to borrow money- an opportunity normal banks do not give them. And we treat them like we treat other our customers in the 'developped world' as well- as smart individuals, who want to make a business, and who are not waiting to be patronized.
'Cause we are not doing development aid- we are taking our clients seriously, and we are taking ourselves seriously. And you can only do that by taking loans seriously. Not by making them a de facto gift, and thereby making people depending....
posted by David Hein at 1:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home