A Comprehensive Review of Microfinance Impacts, Sustainability and Outreach

Abstract

This study reviews peer reviewed journal articles on microfinance impacts, sustainability, and outreach over the period 1997 to 2011. The review suggests mixed results on the impacts of microfinance worldwide, and fails to discover a concrete relationship between outreach and sustainability. However, the review confirms microfinance institutions extend financial and nonfinancial services to the bottom of the pyramid ignored by traditional financial institutions and considered un-bankable. The paper contributes to extant microfinance literature and guides inexperienced microfinance practitioners toward further academic research and publishing their work in relevant journals.

The Social Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions in Sri Lanka

“…Sri Lanka recorded the highest growth rate after independence (in 1948), in 2011viz 8.3 percent. Further, the per capita income of the country had remarkably increased from $871 in 2000 to $3835 by 2015 [1] Microfinance is comparatively a new discipline for academic research, receiving a good reputation as a unique and effective developmental approach [2]. There is consensus that Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) extend financial services to the poor normally ignored by traditional financial intermediaries.…”

“…There is consensus that Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) extend financial services to the poor normally ignored by traditional financial intermediaries. Access to finance is important for the poor to raise productivity, create wealth, generate income, encourage entrepreneurship, empower women, improve health and access to education, and reduce poverty [2].…”