Definitely, the Peru of today is another. It seems that Peruvians are waking up from a long sleep that kept us in physical misery, spiritual poverty and social backwardness. Now, our country awakens and is transformed to compete in the world, and much of that historic feat is due to the role that the microfinance industry has played in the last 26 years.
Peru may not have a Nobel Prize in Economics, but every day we see the creativity, ingenuity and innovation of thousands of fellow citizens who not only "struggle in life", but also create their own jobs and share it with others. Many of these entrepreneurial activities have been, are and will be financed by the various institutions that make up the microfinance industry in the country.
Not surprisingly, the eyes of the authorities of the industrialized world and emerging economies are on Peru. What some economists now call the “ microfinance phenomenon ” and which has brought commercial banks due to their profitability, more than two decades ago some non-governmental organizations, especially of Protestant religious origin, practiced it through solidarity loans, formalized by the municipal savings and credit banks.
Microfinance is not a modern topic nor is it fashionable. They are something that in the eighties was successfully practiced by municipal savings banks, NGOs and cooperatives. Microcredit has been the tool so that many businesses can now be large or medium-sized and are clients of banks. In other words, microfinance is reaching excellent levels of social development that is impacting not only on the national economy, but on the very lives of its protagonists, who are thousands of entrepreneurs linked to medium, small and micro enterprises.
The experience started by Caja Piura, the first municipal entity that had the vision of venturing into microfinance in the country is outstanding. Now the municipal savings and loan system has twelve institutions and has become “small banks” for SME and MYPE entrepreneurs.
La experiencia piurana con el apoyo de GTZ, entidad de cooperación técnica alemana, ha sido para muchas instituciones el camino a seguir por otras CMAC, cajas de ahorro y crédito, cajas rurales, cooperativas de ahorro y crédito, financieras, Edpyme y organizaciones no gubernamentales. Incluso, con la excepción del Mibanco, que sí tiene raíces microfinancieras, algunos bancos comerciales están emulando la experiencia de las cajas, creando sus divisiones o entidades microfinancieras. La pregunta es si lo harán por rentabilidad o apoyo social. Es cuestión de ética.
The role of the microfinance industry in economic growth has criteria that are worth mentioning. First, when a business is formalized, it contributes to the reactivation of internal demand, and then, it allows various jobs to be created, thus combating poverty and its social ills such as crime, drug addiction, poor health and business informality.
If we talk about social development, microfinance is a large part of the solution for an increasingly globalized world. Large companies or international corporations, although they do business with each other, require SMEs to boost the engine of national economies. Let's not forget that 98.6 percent of the business universe corresponds to SMEs and MYPE. Many of these businesses have formed consortiums, associations or simply develop various levels of outsourcing.
