A World Bank-funded project that integrates both HIV education and microfinance initiatives has aimed to provide women in Niger with an opportunity to escape the world of prostitution and start new lives as entrepreneurs, which in turn may help reduce the risk of HIV transmission and poverty.                                                                                                        
The initiative is expected to create more employers of labour in Niger to reduce miscreants such as prostitutes in the country. This, according to the World Bank, would contribute positively to the economy, thereby increasing the nation’s Gross Domestic Products (GDP).                                                                                                                                                           
Poverty, the World Bank said, makes most of these women involve themselves in prostitution as they have no means of livelihood. The World Bank is of the view that this project would empower more women, making them take care of their social and financial needs without necessarily involving in prostitution which makes its practitioners prone to HIV infection.                                                                                                                                                 
Meanwhile, a report from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) indicated that several regions in north and east Niger face severe political instability and gender inequality issues due to a fairly large population of sex workers, especially in the Diffa area of east Niger. This has made the region encounter a greater risk of HIV infections.                                                                                                                                              
In order to increase awareness about the risks of HIV transmission as a sex worker and provide these women with an alternative option for a steady income stream, various Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) have incorporated microfinance into their HIV education projects.                                                                                                                               
The United Nations (UN) in its aim to fulfil the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) stated that access to microfinance can mitigate the desperation to work as a prostitute for the sake of earning a steady income and provide additional choices so dangerous decisions that fuel the spread of HIV/AIDS are not made.                                                                                    
Shortly after the World Bank initiative, various women from the east of Diffa are reportedly quitting prostitution when they received micro credit loans from a World Bank-funded project. This, it was learnt, depicts how microfinance has opened new doors for these former sex workers in terms of empowerment and steady source of income.                                                                      
While the partnering of HIV awareness and microfinance may be considered an innovative means to prevent decreasing levels of income, investment and consumption, experts caution that microfinance institutions ought to diversify their clients without focusing solely on a single target market of people facing risk of HIV, in order to avoid high default rate.