Government Support Amidst Covid-19 Will Revive the Global Microfinance Market

The global microfinance market is projected to exhibit a significant growth, at a CAGR of around 14.8%, during the forecast period. COVID-19 has posed major setbacks for the global microfinance market. Microfinance industry has experienced crisis before, such as 2008 Financial crisis; however, at that time, the industry came out effectively and efficiently. Though, the crisis proposed from the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic is expected to act differently for the microfinance market, as the impact will affect the access to capital. A greater capital flight can be seen after the outbreak of the pandemic in the emerging countries than any time in history, comparatively more severe than 2008 Financial crisis and Asian financial crisis. 

Browse the full report description Global Microfinance Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Service Type (Group and Individual Micro Credit, Insurance, Leasing, and Others) and Forecast 2020-2026 at https://www.omrglobal.com/industry-reports/microfinance-market 

Therefore, the funding environment of the microfinance market is certainly at a risk. It can be seen that the revenue of the industry is threatened as the customers are affected by the global macroeconomic collapse, social distancing, and other COVID-19 norms posed by healthcare organizations and respective governments, to contain the spread of the pandemic. Therefore, many microfinance institutions have suspended repayments during this meantime, with which, no income is calculated in the industry in the past 2-3 months. Thus, the global microfinance market is experiencing a huge pressure from all the directions amidst the outbreak.

However, the government are taking several steps to assist microfinance institution during this meantime. The government of the respective countries are following numerous measures to handle the financial industry. For instance, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has opened an all-over separate liquidity window for several smaller non-bank lenders, which includes microfinance institutions. The Government of India (GoI) has offered moratorium of three-months to loan borrowers. In addition, the microfinance lenders have announced an extension of three-months of moratorium to microfinance clients. Some other steps taken by the GoI include-

• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has been allotted $33 million (INR 25,000 crore) to enable refinancing of regional rural banks, cooperative banks, and microfinance institutions.
• All India financial Institutions, such as Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), NABARD, and the National Housing Bank will be provided with special refinance facility of $66 million (INR 50,000 crore) at the repo rate.
• The SIDBI has been given Rs $20 million (INR 15,000 crore) for on-lending and refinancing to scheduled commercial banks, non-banks, and microfinance institutions.

In addition, the GoI has revised guidelines on April 15, 2020, and allowed housing finance companies and microfinance institutions to resume work with minimum staff. In addition, all agricultural and horticultural activities, cooperative credit societies, plantations, and construction activities in rural areas are allowed to restart from April 20, 2020. These steps are expected to certainly curtail the loss for the microfinance market in India. 

Global Microfinance Market-Segmentation

By Service Type

• Group and Individual Micro Credit
• Insurance
• Leasing
• Others (Micro Investment Funds)

Global Microfinance Market– Segment by Region