The Efficiency of Multi-Tier Savings and Credit Cooperatives in Developing Countries: A Study Based on Empirical Research in West Africa (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9783631377376)

As a means of fighting poverty, the support of microfinance institutions has gained major significance in development aid. However, the widespread expectation that these institutions would quickly become self-sustaining has so far only rarely been fulfilled.
This applies in particular to multi-tier savings and credit cooperatives, whose way of functioning is examined in the present study using innovative organisation- and cost-analysis instruments. The analysis reveals the dominance of the upper institutional levels, which attempt to position themselves as intermediaries for public development aid and as a result generate extremely inefficient operations, instead of providing efficient support services for the lower level institutions.
To enable multi-tier savings and credit cooperatives to develop their full potential, radical reforms and a change of attitude on the part of the cooperative managers and international donors are needed.

Author: Reinhard Schmidt,Marcel Gounot
ISBN-10: 3631377371
ISBN-13: 9783631377376
Publisher: Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der W
Language: English
Published: 10/01/2001
Pages: 206
Format: Paperback