Access to Financial Services and Women Empowerment, through Microfinance eligibility

The new movement of microfinance backs to the foundation of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh
by Professor Muhammad Yunus in 1970. Since then, Microfinance is considered as an
effective and powerful tool in poverty eradication, especially in developing countries. It helps
the entrepreneurial poor, especially women, by facilitating the access to financial resources
and provides a better life condition by increasing the household revenues and job creation for
them. There is increased recognition of the importance of empowering poor people and
helping them to become more productive in society they are living. Poverty alleviation can be
achieved by increasing the access of the poor to all factors of production, including credit.
Enhancing the quality of life of the poor so that they can have a sustainable future is not just
a social responsibility of the governments and NGOs. Still, it is a prerequisite for global peace
and development. This paper aims to describe the concept and the importance of Microfinance
over the living standards and women empowerment under the complicated political and
economic situation using previous Literature Reviews. In the end, our findings showed that
people tend to have a positive perception of Microfinance. However, most perceive microfinance as the process of just providing loans without specifying for whom it is intended.
We advise that the government introduces laws to regulate the microfinance market.