Want to take out a loan to open a small workshop in your village? Without owning a piece of land that could be used as collateral, banks would pass on that; they’d also decline the $200 loan request for a woman who wanted to invest in a sewing machine as the starting point for a small business and economic self-sufficiency. Despite Lebanon’s high bank saturation, the poor here have long lacked access to financial services. Only six years ago, the International Finance Corporation found that Lebanon’s microfinance sector comprised just 11 providers, with a total outstanding loan portfolio of $33 million. Related article: Every little helps Photogallery: The people benefitting from microloans Microfinance is considered an entry point for those in the lowest income brackets to penetrate the formal economy. Al Majmoua, the largest Lebanese microfinance institution (MFI) according to publicly available data, offers group loans — making
