Entrevista a Profundidad

Sustainability means the existence of microcredit on a permanent basis, with the ability to generate income to cover the costs of providing financial services to SHG members. The term financial sustainability refers to the ability of the MFIs to efficiently utilise the funds and grants for the purpose of income generation (Roshane Zaigham, 2011; Schreiner, 2001).

The loan repayment performance is crucial for MFIs’ sustainability (Yaron, Benjamin, & Piprek, 1997). A more advanced stage, referred to as financial self- sufficiency, compared the total income with the total expenses on one hand, while grants and subsidies received on the other. Sustainability is realised when the organisations have the ability to independently generate adequate income in order to meet their current requirements without endangering the future needs of the institution to operate smoothly. Most of the loans were taken for income-generating activities, the repayment of the loans are under the close supervision of the supporting institutions. The ability to make timely repayments to banks, in turn, depends on the repayment patterns of the individual members (Zeller & Meyer, 2002).

Generally, most MFIs, particularly those adopting joint-lending methodology, exhibit high repayment performance (Chamhuri & Quinones, 2000). Moreover, there is consent that joint group-lending has a high repayment performance compared to individual

lending. The researcher supports the idea that screening, monitoring, enforcement etc., which take place in group-lending, contribute to a great extent in covering the gaps caused by the absence of collateral, information asymmetry and moral hazards (Sadiki, 2009). In this regard, J. E. Stiglitz (1990) opines that with zero monitoring costs, joint-liability lending has a positive repayment performance and substantially reduces the monitoring costs.

The common question, particularly with the poverty-focus approach, is whether the poorest can manage to pay the high interest rates determined by the market mechanisms (M Cohen, 1996). In fact, for the purposes of maximising the welfare of the poor and motivating the poorest to access microloans, the interest rate is expected to be the as low as possible (Morduch, 2000). To emphasise the ability of the poorest to afford high interest rates, Schreiner(2001) explains the fact that the poor are prepared to take different microloan cycles, and that repayment is the relevant evidence to show that they have the ability. Furthermore, analysis reveals that, in general financial costs of microloans, particularly the interest rate, constitute proportionately an insignificant portion of the total costs in running income-generating activities (Woller & Schreiner, 2004). In another study, Besley & Coate (1995) shows that strong ties among the group members had a positive impact on repayment performance. They maintain that, based on these strong ties, failure to repay would lead to sanctions not only of issues related to MFIs, but even their areas of residence. In other words, they theoretically affirm that the repayment performance is high as group members are prepared to take strong measures including social sanctions.

M. Sharma & Zeller (1997) adds some interesting observations in relation to joint- lending repayment performance. Their study established three major findings. First, the group members from remote areas experienced a high loan repayment performance because they wanted to maintain a good relationship with MFIs. If they needed to access micro

loans in the future proper repayment was important. Second, the study found a poor repayment performance for group members who were close relatives. Third, a positive group repayment performance was made possible by members who used to rely on their own initiative, rather than the influence of agencies or other individuals.

The authors argued that the ability and preparedness of borrowers to pay the interest rate was dependant to a great extent on the industry or sector in which the micro loans were invested. This, in turn, was the basis for establishing the rate of returns on investment and, normally, where there was a high return the borrowers accepted loans and paid high interest rates. For instance, borrowers who invested in petty trades generally had a high profit margin and high stock turn over and this encouraged them to pay high interest rates. (Sadiki, 2009).

According to Sievers & Vandenberg (2007), SHGs are expected to be self-sufficient via interest and principal repayments, service fees, and, in the case of embedded services, channel their contribution to the marketing and sale of other products.

Deininger & Liu (2009a) did a research study on “Determinants of Repayment Performance in Indian Microcredit Groups”. In this study, they evaluated the effect of monetisation and the arrangement embedded in loan recovery methods on the microcredit groups’ repayment performance, which is an obscure area of study. The data was collected from more than 2000 federated groups in 299 Village Organisations (VOs) in a programme aimed at delivering microcredit to the poor rural folk in Andhra Pradesh. The data covered 3350 expired loans by 2147 SHGs in 299 VOs. The SHG funds were from three sources, namely commercial banks via Village Officers, internal savings by SHGs and grants provided to the Village Officer under the Community Investment Fund (CIF). Nearly 40 million rupees (about 1 million USD) was transferred through these loans and 60% from CIF resources. Only 63% have been fully repaid and 23% loans are still outstanding. The

repayment rates are still lower compared to banks (87%) and internal loans (89%). The study used the Tobit Model to analyse the research.

The study of Kumar ( 2008) “SHGs and Financial Behaviour: A study in Micro Finance” states that the high transaction costs in group-lending resulted in high defaults. The financial operations of SHGs in terms of thrift, the amount and number of loans and interest rate determination are reviewed in this study. The per capita amount had a positive relation to the members’ perception of their educational status. The unity in purpose and intention of loans and the practice of rotation in lending, backed by a higher economic status among the concerned group members reflected a higher lending ability. Members used their own funds for saving and the external funds were used for investment.

Sievers & Vandenberg (2007) conducted a study on “Synergies through Linkages: Who Benefits from Linking Micro-Finance and Business Development Services?” The findings showed that access to both financial and business development services (BDS) is instrumental in encouraging growth of both micro and small enterprises. However, initial effort at combining these two factors proved unsuccessful. It was surmised that the provision of credit was insufficient in the reduction of bottom-up poverty reduction, which spells the needs for a new approach vis-à-vis BDS. For successful credit linkages three key factors were needed: enterprises, BDS providers and micro finance institutions. A total of thirty linked programmes were studied via a six part typology.

Krishnamurthy (2011) in his study on “Narrative Approach to study the Business Model of Flower Sellers and the Role of Micro Finance in Chennai City” interviewed 20 flower sellers located in the Choolaimedu area. The study used a model provided in the website20 to find the dimensions of business. 20 participants were involved in the micro finance. The study found that the SHG women who got loans from MFIs had also got loans from money

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lenders as it was easy for the women to repay their loans on a daily or weekly basis. As such the loans accumulated for monthly repayment were difficult for them to repay as most of the SHG loans had to be repaid on a monthly basis. The local money lenders could be easily accessed by the women during their times of urgent need as they did not need to wait for the loans.

All of the studies above on financial suitability concluded that there was a positive contribution of members towards improved repayment performance and reduction in transactional costs. However, the negative fact was that the high interest rates charged resulted in defaults in repayment. Hence, it can be concluded that financial sustainability of SHGs are incumbent upon the repayment of micro loans and interest rates, the maintenance of group savings and the generation of income from the micro loans.

Group solidarity of the SHG members, their interest in the continuing the group are also resulted in financial sustainability of the SHGs. The SHGs provides an opportunity to build self-help, mutual cooperation and collection action to strengthen their social and economic development. Forming sustaining institutions for the poor will help and result in collective action, greater solidarity, bargaining power, economies of scale and larger linkages. When the SHG started, they were formed to inculcate friendship amongst the members. A well- functioning SHG involved cooperation built through the members’ bonding relationships with each other. For most of the women, the SHG was the first situation where they were expected to work collaboratively outside their family circle (S. G. Sabhlok, 2006). The study by Kerr (1994) stated that face to face communication enhances the likelihood of the individual members to cooperate and, in turn, strengthens solidarity in the group and results in better group functioning through good cooperation.From all the studies, it can be concluded that the common indicator used in microcredit for financial sustainability repayment of credit and interest rates, effectively

using the credit for income generating activities. However this study will focus on group solidarity and willingness to continue their participation in the group. If a group possess solidarity which will enhance their income generation, share of knowledge in using the funds productively which will be useful in income generation in a positive way. Also other indicators like repayment performance, payment of interest rate and income generation through SHGs will also useful in determining the financial sustainability of SHGs.