<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Date: 2008-06-23</p><p>Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, Basic Level 300, 15 ECTS-Points</p><p>Author: Daniel Allotey</p><p>Tutor: Per Nordqvist</p><p>Title: Commercializing a microfinance institution to maximize profit</p><p>(A study of the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution-Ghana)</p><p>Background: Microfinance is one major approach to offering financial services to the majority, (mainly poor people) in developing countries. Traditionally, most of these institutions largely operate based on support by international donor agencies. Research into this field has shown that a microfinance institution has the ability to maximize profits by commercializing its services.</p><p>Problem: The research problem is to find out how the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution, (Ghana) can maximize profits as a result of commercialization of operations.</p><p>Purpose: The main purpose of this research is to illustrate to the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution how it could maximize profits through the commercialization of its operations.</p><p>Method: The research is a study that uses the qualitative approach. Relevant information for the theoretical background and the Sinapi Aba has been organized through primary and secondary data search. The primary data is based on a telephone interview with Mr.Opata Narh, managing director at Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution in Oda, and a questionnaire sent through an attached e-mail to Mrs. Georgina Ocansey, the human resource manager to solicit her opinion on the same subject. Information’s were also gathered from the institutions home page. The secondary data was sourced from books and articles from the Mälardalen University library and internet sources within this field of study.</p><p>Conclusion: In an effort to illustrate to the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution how it could be self sufficient through profit maximization, the author was able to base his argument on the theories used in the frame of reference in connection with the findings obtained from the telephone interview, questionnaire and the institutions home page. This also helped the author establish the fact that the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution can maximize profit through the commercialization of its services. Profit maximization could therefore be achieved by developing its human resources, mobilizing savings, supervision and regulative mechanisms and finally marketing and competitive positioning.</p>

<p>Microcredit provides small loans to poor people and small enterprises. It is the best solution of removing poverty. This research provides an overview of the role and performance of microcredit in Pakistan. The major objective of the study is to show the microfinance sector performance and impact of the microcredit on the different poverty levels. This study is based on both quantitative and qualitative methods in order to answer the thesis questions. The result of the study was that microcredit helps in the poverty alleviation of different categories of poor people and has the positive effects on their living standards. It was found that there is a high interest rate on micro loans because of the administrative cost. We discovered that there are three types of organizations that provide services of microfinance in Pakistan. The government takes interest and supports the microfinance sector and of their main initiative is microfinance ordinance 2001. It was observed that there is improvement in the microfinance sector in the recent years in terms of investments, active borrowers, branches and personnel.</p>

<p>Poor people often lack collateral, which is one of the reasons that they have no access to</p><p>formal financial institutions. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide financial services to</p><p>poor people. Traditional MFIs have received some criticism, for instance that they do not</p><p>target the poorest of the poor. This paper, with a field study from Dhaka, takes a closer look at</p><p>SafeSave, a new MFI working in a quite different way than the traditional MFIs in</p><p>Bangladesh. The conclusion of this paper is that SafeSave’s more flexible services are able to</p><p>reach the poor better than the services of traditional MFIs, but might not be the best solution</p><p>seen from a long-term development perspective.</p>

Poor people often lack collateral, which is one of the reasons that they have no access to formal financial institutions. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide financial services to poor people. Traditional MFIs have received some criticism, for instance that they do not target the poorest of the poor. This paper, with a field study from Dhaka, takes a closer look at SafeSave, a new MFI working in a quite different way than the traditional MFIs in Bangladesh. The conclusion of this paper is that SafeSave’s more flexible services are able to reach the poor better than the services of traditional MFIs, but might not be the best solution seen from a long-term development perspective.

Microcredit provides small loans to poor people and small enterprises. It is the best solution of removing poverty. This research provides an overview of the role and performance of microcredit in Pakistan. The major objective of the study is to show the microfinance sector performance and impact of the microcredit on the different poverty levels. This study is based on both quantitative and qualitative methods in order to answer the thesis questions. The result of the study was that microcredit helps in the poverty alleviation of different categories of poor people and has the positive effects on their living standards. It was found that there is a high interest rate on micro loans because of the administrative cost. We discovered that there are three types of organizations that provide services of microfinance in Pakistan. The government takes interest and supports the microfinance sector and of their main initiative is microfinance ordinance 2001. It was observed that there is improvement in the microfinance sector in the recent years in terms of investments, active borrowers, branches and personnel.

ABSTRACT Date: 2008-06-23 Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, Basic Level 300, 15 ECTS-Points Author: Daniel Allotey Tutor: Per Nordqvist Title: Commercializing a microfinance institution to maximize profit (A study of the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution-Ghana) Background: Microfinance is one major approach to offering financial services to the majority, (mainly poor people) in developing countries. Traditionally, most of these institutions largely operate based on support by international donor agencies. Research into this field has shown that a microfinance institution has the ability to maximize profits by commercializing its services. Problem: The research problem is to find out how the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution, (Ghana) can maximize profits as a result of commercialization of operations. Purpose: The main purpose of this research is to illustrate to the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution how it could maximize profits through the commercialization of its operations. Method: The research is a study that uses the qualitative approach. Relevant information for the theoretical background and the Sinapi Aba has been organized through primary and secondary data search. The primary data is based on a telephone interview with Mr.Opata Narh, managing director at Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution in Oda, and a questionnaire sent through an attached e-mail to Mrs. Georgina Ocansey, the human resource manager to solicit her opinion on the same subject. Information’s were also gathered from the institutions home page. The secondary data was sourced from books and articles from the Mälardalen University library and internet sources within this field of study. Conclusion: In an effort to illustrate to the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution how it could be self sufficient through profit maximization, the author was able to base his argument on the theories used in the frame of reference in connection with the findings obtained from the telephone interview, questionnaire and the institutions home page. This also helped the author establish the fact that the Sinapi Aba Microfinance Institution can maximize profit through the commercialization of its services. Profit maximization could therefore be achieved by developing its human resources, mobilizing savings, supervision and regulative mechanisms and finally marketing and competitive positioning.

Ce travail de recherche propose un cadre théorique permettant de mieux comprendre comment la pauvreté influence les choix de production. Dans les pays en développement, la pauvreté est un phénomène concentré en zone rurale et la grande majorité des exploitations agricoles maintiennent des pratiques de culture rudimentaires. Le processus décisionnel étudié sera donc celui d'adopter ou non l'utilisation d'intrants commercialisés dans la production agricole. Ce choix de modernisation est étudié à travers un modèle de jeu non-coopératif, cadre d'analyse qui vient supporter l'hypothèse que la persistance de la faible productivité agricole dans les pays pauvres peut découler d'un manque de coordination. L'existence d'un équilibre Pareto supérieur et le fait qu'il puisse être atteint par la mise en place d'un instrument d'épargne comme le bon de livraison d'intrants, plus communément appelé le coupon, viennent renforcer la nécessité de favoriser la conception et l'expérimentation de produits innovateurs et plus efficaces en matière de micro finance rurale. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Coupon, Agriculture, Micro finance, Épargne, Jeu supermodulaire, Coordination.

Over the past three decades microfinance has become one of the most important policy interventions used by international development practitioners, offering loan opportunities to those who lack access to basic financial services. Women have been the primary targets of this poverty alleviation strategy as it was presumed that they would be empowered through increased control over their incomes. In Cambodia, these strategies are guided by a business-approach to development and enforce regulatory measures encouraging competition, marketization and commercialization, and in so doing, put more economic pressure on women borrowers. Through the concepts of debt and trust, the following thesis will argue against the motive of empowerment through microfinance programs. Since microfinance was not designed to address social inequalities, it will also argue that deeply embedded patriarchal power relations go unchallenged and the status of women within the household goes unchanged. In stark contradiction to the empowerment discourses lauded internationally, usurious moneylenders and unregistered microfinance institutions practicing predatory lending are actually encroaching upon Cambodian women’s domestic and work space. A feminist ethnography was employed in seeking to unearth participants’ understandings of their circumstances and giving them a voice, where the specific methodological tools included semi-structured interviews with Cambodian women who have taken loans. The analysis was guided by examining discourse in microfinance policy reports as well as interviews with employees of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The resulting research is positioned within the critical literature in human geography on neoliberalization by examining whether or not the integration of the poor into the “market” benefits them or places them in highly exploitative circumstances. / Graduate / 0453 / 0366 / 0733 / elaurin@uvic.ca

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<p>Currently, some microfinance institutions in Bolivia are adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a concept whereby sompanies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and publish the results. CSR is applied mostly by big companies in the North and in sectors more in the eye of the public, such as oil production or textile and apparel. Bolivia has been the pioneer in the commercialization of microfinance through microfinance NGO transformations. The objectives of this investigation was to asses and compare the reasons why the selected Bolivian commercial MFI's were engaged, or not engaged, in CSR. Secondly, to determine which stakeholders are more relevant for each MFI analysed, assessing how they influenced the decision to adopt or not adopt CSR and thirdly, to compare the current social performance of the selected MFI's within the framework of corporate social responsibility.</p>