A microcredit success story from Nepal

A unique story from a newspaper in Nepal gives us another micro-credit success. It tells us of Parbati Karki, who has a successful milk selling business thanks to a micro-credit loan. Again, we see overwhelming success for the lender in this article as well, as 99.93 percent of their loans are payed back.

Prithvi Man Shrestha of the Kantipur Online gives us the good news story from Kathmandu.

Parbati Karki, 27, had purchased a Jersey cow five years ago by obtaining a small loan of Rs. 5,000 from Mahila Sahayogi Sahakari Sanstha (MSSS), a micro-credit provider.

She now sells 18 litres of milk daily from her two cows and earns about Rs. 400. She has been able to erect a new house by putting together her income from the milk business and her husband's earnings.

Thanu Karki, 30, said she purchased jewellery from the savings she made by rearing goats. She had also borrowed Rs. 5,000 from the micro-finance institution to start her enterprise. Mina Karki had a hard time managing her household expenses on the small salary her husband earned by working as a peon at Saraswoti Campus, Kathmandu. Now, she is earning money herself by rearing cows and growing vegetables. The women of the village said they had to depend on others for even small personal expenses. Now they are capable of earning enough money not only their personal expenses but also to contributed the household expenses.

The borrowers do not have to offer their property as collateral to get credit from the micro-credit institution. The employees of the micro-finance institution come to their doorsteps to provide them credit.

They have formed a women's group which is mainly responsible for taking decisions regarding who should be given credit as per their earlier performance regarding the best utilisation of the fund.

“We hold a meeting of the group every fortnight,” said Sita K.C. who is the acting group chief. “The regular group meetings have established a strong bond among the women here.”