Cross-posted on Give2Asia Forum, by Cissy DeLuca, Philanthropic
Initiatives Intern There are currently 480 million people in
China without access to formal credit. According to the World
Bank, poverty in China is an almost exclusively rural phenomenon
with 90% of the poor population residing in rural areas. As
poverty declines, the dispersion throughout villages makes it
irrelevant for the government to target entire areas for poverty
reduction. The need is for an approach that targets poverty at
the rural household level, such as microfinance. The demand for
microfinance, specifically microcredit services, comes from
rural households, urban laid-off workers and micro-
entrepreneurs. Microfinance services in China mostly consist of
microcredit, which is of the highest demand, but there is also
demand for microinsurance, microsavings and investment. These
services are currently not commonly offered by microfinance
providers, due to the slow growth of the industry. Currently,
there are about 100 microfinance NGO