4th European Microfinance Day
The sector reached an outstanding gross microloan portfolio of €3.2 billion in 2017, serving almost one million active borrowers
On the 20th October, the European microfinance sector will celebrate the 4th European Microfinance Day, an initiative co-organised by the European Microfinance Network (EMN) and the Microfinance Centre (MFC). About 20 members from both networks and from 11 European countries (Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Romania, Serbia) are involved in more than 25 local actions over the month of October, including round tables, open meetings, high-level events, special discounts on loans, national conventions, seminars and strong communication campaigns. All these activities are carried out to raise awareness among the general public, policy makers and the media about the impact that MFIs have on the financial and social inclusion of European citizens.
In other words, as several impact studies from MFIs[1] have demonstrated, access to microcredit, a financial service, for those who are excluded from traditional banking, combined with non-financial services, such as mentoring, counselling, BDS, training have an exponential effect on the beneficiaries’ situation and the society.
According to the joint EMN-MFC publication “Microfinance in Europe: Survey Report 2016-2017”, 68% of MFIs offer non-financial services to complement their financial products. In 2017, 443,825 clients were reached through non-financial support, more than half of whom were not actually active borrowers.