Government-owned micro-bank and financial exclusion

A case study of small business people in east Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5674196
AutoresCaroline Shenaz Hossein (0000-0002-6696-2064, York University)
Año2015
Volumen40
Número3
Páginas394-410
Fecha de publicación2015-09-02
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCanadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies / Revue canadienne des études latino-américaines et caraïbes (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0826-3663 • E-ISSN: 2333-1461
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/08263663.2015.1090707
OpenAlexW2110841202
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas16

Microfinance is commonly known as banking upside down because micro-lending institutions make very small loans available to businesspeople excluded from conventional banks. Microfinance has piqued the interest of political elites in many Global South countries because of its support by the poor masses. The case of the Trinidadian microfinance sector shows that the state dominates the micro-lending sector through its agency, the National Entrepreneurship Development Company (NEDCO). The main argument for this paper is that government-owned microfinance is in fact “political microfinance” because of its exclusionary tendency of the small businesspeople in the slums of east Port of Spain. On the ground, the current party politics have fuelled the perception that persons of African descent are the most excluded from accessing a small loan. However, this paper finds that no matter which party is in power, the state has co-opted NEDCO to make loans available to its own party supporters, and this practice goes against the microfinance sector’s goal of inclusive finance

Agency (philosophy · Business · Economic growth · Economics · Government (linguistics · Loan · Microfinance · Political science · Politics · Small business · Sociology · State (computer science · Islamic Finance and Banking Studies · Microfinance and Financial Inclusion · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Finance · Law