Grameen Takes Microfinance to Omaha
Eighteen months after Grameen America launched a pilot program of microcredit lending in Queens, New York, it has announced plans to expand its model into Omaha, Nebraska.
Although microfinance has been available in the United States for some time, most providers use a model that more closely resembles the traditional banking model. Grameen America uses the peer group as a substitute for collateral in order to make financial services available to those who might not otherwise qualify for credit. Grameen America describes itself as a “non-profit microfinance institution whose mission is to alleviate poverty through entrepreneurship by offering loans, savings programs, credit establishment, and financial education to the working poor in the United States.”
The announcement of Grameen America’s expansion into Omaha indicates a belief in the universal applicability of the peer group lending model, since Queens and Omaha represent two distinct faces of urban poverty in the United States.
For more information on the expansion, please visit the Grameen America website or the press release.
[reposted from SeaMo: SeattleMicrofinance.org]
One can find the Grameen model at work here in the San Diego area with Foundation for Women’s loan program. Although Grameen America has not expanded across the U.S. yet, there is clear evidence of this approach to microcredit’s success through mirrored programs as found at Foundation for Women.
For more information about Foundation for Women, see: http://www.foundationforwomen.org/index.html
I wonder why Grameen chose Omaha? Although that seems a little confusing to me, I am overjoyed that Grameen is having a successful time with their new banking model. As a finance major over at Point Loma Nazaerene University, I can understand now how the conventional model of banking cannot work for microfinance. And so, Grameen’s new model, whether in Omaha, Queens, or Lima is going to be highly successful.
Thanks,
Joseph