microfinance
microfinance — noun
1. the practice of giving very small loans, savings accounts, or other money servic
the practice of giving very small loans, savings accounts, or other money services to low-income individuals and tiny businesses that cannot borrow from regular banks.
Adisa runs a microfinance group that lends small sums to weavers in northern Ghana.
microfinance + noun (group / programme / institution)
The charity uses microfinance to help women in rural Bangladesh start their own tailoring shops.
use microfinance to + verb
Walid borrowed three hundred dollars through microfinance and bought a sewing machine for his stall.
Microfinance has lifted many families above the poverty line in parts of South Asia.
Critics argue that microfinance can trap poor borrowers in cycles of debt when interest rates climb.
- microcredit
narrower — specifically the small-loan part of microfinance, without savings or insurance services
- microlending
near-synonym focused on the lending activity itself, often used interchangeably in news writing
文法句型
microfinance for [borrowers]
microfinance to [borrowers]
用法筆記
Uncountable noun — never 'a microfinance' or 'microfinances'. Common subjects are people, charities, or institutions (a microfinance bank, a microfinance fund). Often paired with development-context vocabulary: 'rural', 'developing', 'poverty', 'borrowers'.