Nepal to host micro-finance world summit in February

Nepal to host micro-finance world summit in February
Xinhua, 5-Jan-08

Nepal is set to host a world summit on micro-finance next month as the country continues its long battle to expand and consolidate the service delivery institutions, The Himalayan Times reported on Saturday.

According to the daily, the three-day conference, the first of its kind and themed Reaching the Poorest of the Poor for Sustainable Income, kicks off in Kathmandu on February 14.

The summit is intended to facilitate a broad dialogue and create a common understanding among the stakeholders, including policymakers and politicians to make micro-finance a priority issue in the national development strategy, according to the organizers.

Some 300 participants -- policy makers, practitioners, rural development, micro-finance development and commercial banks, and cooperatives and representatives from non-governmental organizations from around the world are expected to attend the summit, organizers said.

The stakeholders will discuss their experiences and jointly decide on the future of micro-finance in Nepal, they said.

Nepal has over 3,600 micro-finance institutions providing services to roughly 2.29 million of the rural population -- which is 8.8 percent of the total population and 26.1 percent of those living below the poverty line.

Of them, little over 1.23 million are women, representing 9.73 of the country's total female population.

This means, according to experts, Nepal has an ambitious target of reaching out to close to 12 million or over 31 percent of the population living below and slightly above the poverty line.