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Micro Credits in Morocco
Related to country: Morocco

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“One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like.” - Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen bank, quoted in The Independent 5 May 1996


Introduction

Poverty is a ubiquitous problem that our society suffers from. Indeed, many projects have been done to overcome this issue and approve people‘s welfare.
Micro-credit is one of the various solutions that target people with financial problems and try to help them to overcome poverty. “It is a financial innovation which originated in developing countries where it has successfully enabled extremely impoverished people (mostly women) to engage in self-employment projects that allow them to generate an income and -in many cases- begin to build wealth and exit poverty” .
The beneficiaries of micro-credit are people who do not have any source of income and want to generate their income. “ These individuals lack collateral, steady employment and a verifiable credit history and therefore cannot meet even the most minimum qualifications to gain access to traditional credit ” .
Many studies have been done in the field of micro-credit. In fact, Rachid Boumahdi from L’Institut Marocain du Management made a study in which he stresses on the risks and the impacts of micro-credit on people in Morocco. Another study made by FONDEP (Fondation pour le Développement Local et le Partenariat ) defines and introduces the role of micro-credit in Morocco, as well as its products, its missions, and the procedures through which one can follow to get a loan. It studies also the impact and the evolution of micro-credit in Morocco in the future. Furthermore, Zakoura, one of the leaders of micro-credit’s sector in Morocco, did some studies in which it informs on how micro-credit helped families’ financial and social status in Morocco.
Each of these studies dealt with micro-credit from different perspectives. The main purpose of this paper is to deal with micro-credit from a different angle. In fact, knowing that women are the one who benefit the more from micro-credit, I am going to focus on how micro-credit helps women financially and in their families. Besides, I will shed light on the problems these women encounter when accepting to live on micro-credit.
My objective is to understand the role of micro-credit in Morocoo and how it helps to develop and change people’s way of living and thus, serves in human development.
I will talk about the historical background and the development of micro-credit in the world and in morocco. Then, I will discuss the position of women in micro-credit and how it helps them to overcome their problems and also the difficulties that they face because of micro-credit.


Part One:

The Developpment and the Historical Background of Micro-credit in the World:
Poverty is a widespread phenomenon in our society; however, various techniques have been set to solve this problem. Unfortunatelly, none of them was strong enough and resisted in providing poor population with their needs. Moreover, Mohammad Yunus succeded in setting up a system which was of a great help to the poor.
In fact, in the 1970s, Mohammad Yunus in Bangladesh extended small loans to groups of poor people and especially to deprived women to investment in micro-businesses. This type of microenterprise credit was based on solidarity group lending in which every member of a group guaranteed the repayment of all members.
Through the 1980s and 1990s, microcredit programs throughout the world improved upon the original methodologies and bucked conventional wisdom about financing the poor. First, it showed that poor people, especially women, had excellent repayment rates among the better programs, rates that were better than the formal financial sectors of most developing countries. Second, the poor were willing and able to pay interest rates that allowed microfinance institutions (MFIs) to cover their costs .
These two features—high repayment and cost-recovery interest rates—permitted some MFIs to achieve long-term sustainability and reach large numbers of clients.
Today, the microfinance industry is not only limited to giving poor people with tiny loans, but it also provides them with other services as illiteracy elimination courses and mangement session...For microfinance, this means viewing microfinance as an essential element in any country's financial system.
Micro-Cedit in Morocco:
The first microfinance experiences in Morocco is said to be dated back to the mid nineties. The sector has seen an extraordinary growth, enough to become the biggest and the most representative one of the entire Arab world. The Moroccan microcredit institutions altogether were serving, in 2003, 42% of all active clients of the Arab world, managing a portfolio of more than 61 million dollars. Such success could be ascribed to only two institutions, Al Amana and the Zakoura Foundation, which hold 73% of the market, a percentage which rose up to 90% when the third and most important actor, the Fondation Banque Populaire, was added .
Today, the sector counts 12 institutions. Al Amana association and Zakoura Foundation are the leaders of the market. In fact, Al Amana association, recently created in 1997, was created by a militant of human rights who received both the USAID and the morocain government’s support. Since 2002, Al Amana has become the first micro-credit’s institution in Morocco since it holds the third of the market. Operating in multiple cities of the country, it counts more than 979 people of its employees in March 2006 with 277 000 actif customers, 130 000 of whom are women . Zakoura Foundation, on the other hand, is the oldest institution of micro-credit in Morocco. Founded in 1995 by a Moroccan private citizen, it is a non-profit organization, whose mission is to fight poverty and to develop the sense of public liability, through two tools: microcredit and education. Zakoura Foundation’s typical client is female (96%, whom 20% of them are widowed or divorced and have more than six children), illiterate (72%) and poor, with a monthly average income equal to approximately 150 USD for a five-person household, or rather 1 USD per person per day .
The two associations have divided the market between themselves, minimizing the overlapping areas: Zakoura Foundation is more oriented towards the needs of the poorest people, both in urban and suburban centres and in the rural areas, while Al Amana serves intermediate level “unbankable” clients, only those living in the cities and their environs, offering them more substantial financings .
Part Two
‘The microcredit movement which is built around, and for, and with money is, ironically, at its heart, at its deepest root, not about money at all. It is about helping each person achieve his or her fullest potential. It is not about cash capital but about human capital. Money is merely a tool that helps unlock human dreams and helps even the poorest and the most unfortunate people on this planet achieve dignity, respect and meaning in their lives’. Muhammad Yunus.

Micro-credit may be a means to reduce poverty and social exclusion. It is a financial tool allocated to a poor population and especially to women in order to improve their economic situation and to carry them towards a social development. In fact, Women have become the main focus of many microcredit institutions. The reasoning behind this is the observation that loans to women tend to more often benefit the whole family than loans to men do. It has also been observed that giving women the control and the responsibility of small loans raises their socio-economic status, which is seen as a positive change to many of the current relationships of gender and class .
In this part, I will demonstate how does micro-credit help Moroccan women to surmount their problems inside and outside their families. Also, I will try to focus on the difficulties and problems that women encounter because of micro-credit.


How does micro-credit help its beneficiaries (Women) in Morocco?




‘If we are looking for one single action which will enable the poor to overcome their
poverty, I would focus on credit’
Grameen Bank's founder, Dr. Muhammad Yunus



Microfinancial programmes were found to contribute to people’s economic and social Empowerment and especially to women. Today there are many examples of women managing Successful businesses.
Micro-credit is a tool for most of women to overcome their problems and to improve their well-being. Due to these small loans, many women were seen to ameliorate their financial situation. According to some women , micro-credit helped them to create their own businesses and ensure a steady income. It also helped them in providing their families with most of their needs ( fooding, clothing, housing...).This is the case of Halima, a mother of three children from Ain Aouda:
“Micro-credit helped me a lot in meeting all the needs of my three children. Now I can buy new clothes, books, games ...”

Furthermore, micro-credit represents for women a certain economical independence and a better image in society. The activities undertaken permit to lots of women to gain their dignity and to stop asking for a means of support to their husbands or children.
“At least, now we can rely on ourselves and stop asking for money. Before, I used to ask my children for 50dhs to go to the souk, and sometimes they don’t even give it to me. Now, with my profits, I don’t need any help” .

“Micro-credit as well as my business helped me to improve my image with my husband, I have my own money and if I need to go to the Hamman or buy something, I can pay it myself” .

According to some interviewed women, micro-credit helped them to develop self-confidence and self-esteem. Besides, it encouraged them increase the participation in household decisions and achieve a social integration. Also, access to networks and markets gave women a wider experience of the world outside the home, access to information and possibilities for development of other social and political roles.
What are the problems and difficulties that face micro-credit’s beneficiaries (women) in Morocco?


Micro-credit may be a way for women to gain independence and self-confidence. Yet, they still face some problems and difficulties because of it. In fact, since we live in a patriarchal society, men are rarely happy when their wives become wage earners and gain money as they do. Also, in some cases, male relatives use female borrowers as fronts to get relatively low interest loans. These loans may or may not be used to benefit the family, and the female borrowers rarely see any benefit at all. And yet, the women are still held responsible for repayment of the loans. Besides, as women become wage earners, men tend to deal only with food needs and to leave children and housing’s charges to their wives and may even find it a way to get totally rid off household expenses.
Another problem arises once women activities started. Women have to maintain the same quality of domestic work, the same duties towards their children and husbands as before. Unfortunatly, they found themselves split up between their families and their businesses, which can end in failure.
This is the case of Fatiha, a 35 years old woman, who found herself divided between her job and her family:
“Once my activity started, I couldn’t manage both my family and my job work. I found myself divided between my job and my family”

Furthermore, women find it difficult sometimes to pay back their loans because of personal problems such as health problems, birth, death... The beneficiaries in this case, can lose everything and be excessively in debt.
“I had started my business, but I had stopped it because I was ill. Now, I am excesssively in debt”.

All these points show how micro-credit, with all its advandages, can be a source of problems for many women.

Conclusion


“Microcredit has been one of the success stories of the last decade”.
This quotation by Kofi Annan in 2004 demonstrates how useful and helpful micro-credit is.
“Last November, Morocco won the UN Prize of national committees of "International Year of Microcredit" in tribute to the country's efforts and actions to develop microfinance. Morocco, which is the only country from the North Africa and Middle East region to be granted this honor, boasts 12 micro-credit associations that serve almost 600,000 people handling nearly USD 810 million” . Micro-credit in Morocco is a sector of an increasing evolution. Its presence in poor’s lives has tremendously decreased their submissiveness and empowered them financially and socially. It is the antidote to the problem of poverty.

May 11, 2008 | 9:06 AM Comments  0 comments

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