Where We Work : Liberia : Microfinance

Every week in Liberia, 8,800 women attend their local BRAC microfinance meetings. They come to repay their weekly loan instalments, apply for new loans, and buy health products from their community health promoter.

Our microfinance programme has been designed to serve a large number of poor people – mostly women – with reliable access to cost effective financial services.

They also receive additional support  – such as specialist training and input supplies - for their varied small businesses.

The programme now operates from 20 branches.

Main features:

• Village Organisations
• Micro Loans

Village Organisations

The village organisation is the basis for BRAC to provide microfinance and other programs to the community. A village organisation is a group of 20-30 women that meets weekly to discuss credit decisions and make loan repayments.  New borrower groups meet four times before any loan disbursement takes place.

Micro Loans

Our main microfinance product is the micro loan. We offer this exclusively to women on low incomes who are not served by other microfinance institutions in Liberia. Borrowers typically operate businesses that provide products or services to their local communities.  We go directly to the poor women we are targeting and meet them in their villages, homes and places of work. Borrowers range in age from 20-50 years and have little or no education.

Features of Micro loans:

• Exclusively for women
• Loan repayments in small weekly instalments
• No physical collateral needed
• Loan range: USD 50-800
• Competitive interest rates
• Loan forgiveness and grant for dependants given upon borrower’s death
• Services delivered to member’s village
• Available in rural and urban areas