OVER VIEW OF MICROFINANCE IN GHANA
DEFINITION
Microfinance encompasses the provision of financial services and the
management of small amounts of money through a range of products and a
system of intermediary functions that are targeted at low income clients.
Microfinance refers to provision of small loans and other facilities like savings,
insurance, transfer services to poor low-income household and microenterprises.
Microcredit also refers to a small loan to a client made by a bank or other
institutions.
EVOLUTION OF MICROFINANCE IN GHANA
The concept of microfinance is not new in Ghana. Traditionally, people have
saved with and taken small loans from individuals and groups within the context
of self-help to start businesses or farming ventures. Available evidence also
suggests that the first Credit Union in Africa was established in Northern Ghana in
1955 by Canadian Catholic Missionaries. Susu, which is one of the current
microfinance methodologies, is thought to have originated in Nigeria and
spread to Ghana in the early 1990s. Microfinance has gone through four (4)
distinct phases worldwide of which Ghana is no exception. These stages are
described below:
A QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER ON MICROFINANCE ON MICROFINANCE ISSUES AND DEVELOPMENT IN GHANA
VOL. 1 1st Quarter, 2008
Microfinance Development in Ghana: Achievement, Challenges and and Issues for the way forward
VOL. 1 Edition 2, 2008
2008 Partnership Forum for Making Finance Work for Africa
