Your impact
in India

Microfinance Report, India – October 2019 (data to June 2019)

 Opportunity's partners in India are reaching 4,915,462 families with small loans and financial services. With an average of five in each family, more than 24 million people can break free from the cycle of poverty. 

 In the past six months, 308,593 more entrepreneurs have been given the opportunity to turn their business ideas into reality. With small loans to grow small businesses, alongside other community development services, your giving is transforming lives for generations to come.

HIGHLIGHTS

Our partners in India are seeing continued growth, particularly our newest partners Satya and Pahal.

Over the past six months Opportunity has focused primarily on partners in less well-served markets, including regions such as Rajasthan and Bihar. This helps ensure that we are assisting families who have less access to financial services and that our funding is making a substantial impact.

Our Indian partners are investigating methods of using digital technology to make financial services more accessible. Electronic, cashless transactions allow for partner staff to work more efficiently and safely in rural areas and give clients more freedom with their transactions. All of our partners are engaging with this opportunity.

We continue to explore the best methods of maximising the value of our microfinance platform through non-financial initiatives. More information on these programs can be found in our education and health reports.

LESSONS

Our partners continue to grow at different rates, which requires us to continually evaluate where our support can be the most beneficial. While we strive to see our partners perform at the highest level, our main goal is to grow partners to a point where they no longer need our assistance, which then in turn allows us to focus on building smaller partners up to this stage. The growth our partners have experienced in the past six months is contributing to these conversations with partners in which we determine where we can provide the most value moving forward.

INDIA MICROFINANCE PARTNER SUMMARY

* Following India’s demonetization (withdrawal of high currency notes) in November 2016 and the subsequent public confusion around loan obligations, a significant number of Shikar’s clients either delayed or defaulted on their loan repayments. This default has had a significant impact on Shikhar’s operation and Shikhar has been forced to write off a significant amount of debt.

Due to the issues surrounding demonetization and some other regulatory concerns, Opportunity made the decision to begin discussions with other capital providers in 2018. These discussions are ongoing.

Microfinance Report, India – March 2019 (data to December 2018)

Opportunity's partners in India continue to bring financial inclusion to more families in more locations across India. Our 13 microfinance partners are now reaching 4,606,869 families.

With an average of five in each family, your giving is helping over 23 million people to break the cycle of poverty.

In the past six months your support has given 341,583 more entrepreneurs the opportunity to turn their business ideas into reality. As their businesses grow, parents are supporting their children with better food, shelter and education.

STRIVING FOR SMARTER SOLUTIONS

Opportunity continues to work with our program partners across India to better leverage technology to enhance the products and services they offer to families in need. Our newest partners, Satya and Pahal are two leaders in this field with innovative models moving towards increasingly cashless transactions. Harnessing technology can also help our microfinance partners deliver innovative loan products tailored to the needs of the families they serve. For example, Satya offers a festival holiday period – postponing repayments during four major Indian festivals, while Pahal offers "hospi-cash" so clients can access funds for basic health expenses when they are unable to work to earn any income.

LEARNING FROM SOCIAL PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

Opportunity's Social Performance Management (SPM) ensures that we understand clients' needs and equips us to design products and services that will enable families to most effectively transform their futures and their communities.

India Partner Performance, December 2018

View a table showing partner data for families reached, loans outstanding, operational sustainability and portfolio at risk: 

Operational sustainability is the ability of an organisation to cover the costs of its lending program with the revenue earned from its lending program. 

Portfolio at risk is a stringent measure of a microfinance institution’s loan portfolio quality. The portfolio at risk calculates the total value of outstanding loan balances for loans, for every payment that is overdue by more than 30 days.

Following India’s demonetization (withdrawal of high currency notes) in November 2016 and the subsequent public confusion around loan obligations, a significant number of Shikar’s clients either delayed or defaulted on their loan repayments. This default has had a significant impact on Shikhar’s operation and Shikhar has been forced to write off a significant amount of debt.

Due to the issues surrounding demonetization and some other regulatory concerns, Opportunity made the decision to begin discussions with other capital providers in 2018. These discussions are ongoing.