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2010 Annual Conference and General Assembly
from 05/10/2010 to 09/10/2010
Accra, Ghana
From October 5th to 9th, 2010, the Africa Microfinance Network (AFMIN) will organize its 9th Annual Conference on the theme "Access to Financial Services: Reaching the Poor and Excluded"....
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Helping the poor with microfinance
March 8, 2010
Canberra, March 08, 2010 (News.com.au) - ANDY Penn, who runs one of Australia's biggest insurance and wealth-management companies, can see the financial sense in lending $100 to someone who earns just $2 a day.
The money could help start up a tea shop in India, provide yarn for a sewing business in Bolivia or be put towards the purchase of goats for an African village.
"What appeals to me is the opportunity to help people less fortunate but in a sustainable way," said Mr Penn, the chief executive of AXA Australia.
"There is always a role for donations and financial support at one level but in the end the best solutions to any problems are those that are self-sustainable."
Mr Penn is one of an increasing number of high-profile business people becoming involved with microfinance: the practice of lending money to the world's poorest people.
The Bangladeshi banker and economist who pioneered microlending, Muhammad Yunus, is in Australia this week for a series of talks hosted by the Business for Millennium Development.
The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner will speak in Melbourne tomorrow about "the power of small" and how companies can start "social businesses" to tackle social problems.
The chief financial officer of micro-finance fundraiser Opportunity International Australia, Steve Penny, said awareness and involvement in microfinance and microbusiness was beginning to catch on in corporate Australia because of its entrepreneurial spirit.
"A lot of our supporters are entrepreneurs themselves," he said.
"They really like the concept that they are supporting entrepreneurs in other countries and giving people that start in life."
AXA's Mr Penn said Mr Yunus helped inspire a summit in Melbourne last month where AXA, the government and charities such as The Salvation Army considered how to help Australia's disadvantaged establish microbusinesses.
There are already microbusiness success stories such as The Big Issue, a magazine sold on the street by vendors who earn half of the $5 cover price.
"There are a lot of organisations either doing something in this space or that have an interest so the purpose of the conference was to bring all of those parties together to share their ideas and to really come up with some practical solutions," Mr Penn said.
The microfinance deal
Lending, savings and other financial services to the poor
Loans can be as simple as $50 to buy goats
Institutions involved range from small non-profit organisations to large commercial banks
It provided an estimated loan volume of $A27.5 billion as of December 2007
Its pioneer, Muhammad Yunus, was awarded the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, along with Grameen Bank
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