Canadian Foreign Minister Peter Mackay Sunday announced more
than 40 million Canadian dollars (about US$36 million) to help
microcredit projects in developing countries.
Mackay made the announcement in Halifax, an Atlantic port city,
where about 2,000 people gathered for the start of the four-day
Global Microcredit Summit.
Microcredit is a banking system whereby institutions give small
loans to people who do not qualify for a bank loan because they
have no credit history.
MacKay said the Montreal-based Development International
Desjardins, the Canadian Co-operative Association and Oxfam-Quebec
would each receive funding to build on their respective
microfinance programs.
In turn, the three non-governmental organizations are planning
to help would-be entrepreneurs in Asia, Africa and Latin
America.
Mackay hailed the importance of microfinance as an important
tool to help lift people out of poverty, singling out its
usefulness to women in developing countries.
With these loans, people living in poverty can generate income
for themselves, their families and their communities, he said.
Recipients can be people living in extreme poverty who live on
less than US$1 a day, or those who simply do not qualify for
credit.
The loans, ranging in value from 50 dollars to thousands of
dollars, have low interest rates and are reported to have a high
repayment rate of around 97 percent.
(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2006)