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COVID-19 and the future of microfinance: evidence and insights from Pakistan

Author

Listed:
  • Kashif Malik
  • Muhammad Meki
  • Jonathan Morduch
  • Timothy Ogden
  • Simon Quinn
  • Farah Said

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic threatens lives and livelihoods, and, with that, has created immediate challenges for institutions that serve affected communities. We focus on implications for local microfinance institutions in Pakistan, a country with a mature microfinance sector, serving a large number of households. The institutions serve populations poorly-served by traditional commercial banks, helping customers invest in microenterprises, save, and maintain liquidity. We report results from ‘rapid response’ phone surveys of about 1,000 microenterprise owners, a survey of about 200 microfinance loan officers, and interviews with regulators and senior representatives of microfinance institutions. We ran these surveys starting about a week after the country went into lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. We find that, on average, week-on-week sales and household income both fell by about 90 per cent. Households’ primary immediate concern in early April became how to secure food. As a result, 70 per cent of the sample of current microfinance borrowers reported that they could not repay their loans; loan officers anticipated a repayment rate of just 34 per cent in April 2020. We build from the results to argue that COVID-19 represents a crisis for microfinance in low-income communities. It is also a chance to consider the future of microfinance, and we suggest insights for policy reform.

Suggested Citation

  • Kashif Malik & Muhammad Meki & Jonathan Morduch & Timothy Ogden & Simon Quinn & Farah Said, 2020. "COVID-19 and the future of microfinance: evidence and insights from Pakistan," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 36(Supplemen), pages 138-168.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:oxford:v:36:y:2020:i:supplement_1:p:s138-s168.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/oxrep/graa014
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    Cited by:

    1. Mahmud, Mahreen & Riley, Emma, 2021. "Household response to an extreme shock: Evidence on the immediate impact of the Covid-19 lockdown on economic outcomes and well-being in rural Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    2. Kristina Czura & Florian Englmaier & Hoa Ho & Lisa Spantig, 2023. "Employee Performance and Mental Well-Being: The Mitigating Effects of Transformational Leadership during Crisis," CESifo Working Paper Series 10433, CESifo.
    3. Lee, Jean N. & Mahmud, Mahreen & Morduch, Jonathan & Ravindran, Saravana & Shonchoy, Abu S., 2021. "Migration, externalities, and the diffusion of COVID-19 in South Asia☆," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    4. Villalba, Roberto & Venus, Terese E. & Sauer, Johannes, 2023. "The ecosystem approach to agricultural value chain finance: A framework for rural credit," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 164(C).
    5. Anubhab Gupta & Heng Zhu & Miki Khanh Doan & Aleksandr Michuda & Binoy Majumder, 2021. "Economic Impacts of the COVID−19 Lockdown in a Remittance‐Dependent Region," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(2), pages 466-485, March.
    6. Nudrat Faria Shreya, 2021. "Are Two Sources of Credit better than One?: Credit Access and Debt among Microfinance Clients in Bangladesh," Studies in Economics 2103, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    7. Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak & Edward Miguel, 2022. "The Economics of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Poor Countries," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 253-285, August.
    8. repec:ags:aaea22:335439 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Czura, Kristina & Englmaier, Florian & Ho, Hoa & Spantig, Lisa, 2022. "Microfinance loan officers before and during Covid-19: Evidence from India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    10. Valentina Hartarska & Jingfang Zhang & Denis A. Nadolnyak, 2023. "Scope economies from rural and urban microfinance services," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(4), pages 1138-1167, April.
    11. Prakash Shrestha Ph.D., 2020. "Impact of Covid-19 on Microfinance Institutions of Nepal," NRB Working Papers 51/2020, Nepal Rastra Bank, Economic Research Department.
    12. Maren Duvendack & Lina Sonne, 2021. "Responding to the Multifaceted COVID-19 Crisis: The Case of Mumbai, India," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 21(4), pages 361-379, October.
    13. Kizys, Renatas & Tzouvanas, Panagiotis & Donadelli, Michael, 2021. "From COVID-19 herd immunity to investor herding in international stock markets: The role of government and regulatory restrictions," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

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