Obama’s Stimulus Package Promises $30m for Micro Lending

A micro lending phenomenon that has been slowly growing in the United States for the past 30 years is now picking up steam as a result of the credit freeze. The latest stimulus package announced by Barrack Obama, US President has provisioned 6 million dollars to fund micro loans in 2009 and 24 million dollars to market and manage micro lending programmes in the country. The money, it was gathered, would be handled by the Small Business Association (SBA), which relies on non-profits to examine and work with applicants.                                                                                                                             

Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO) estimates that there are over 24 million micro enterprises in the US, representing 18 per cent of all private employment and 87 per cent of all businesses. It was further disclosed that one out of six US private sector employees works for a micro-enterprise. The Small Business Association, it was learnt, would be the manager and custodian of the funds.

Earlier, Senator Hillary  Clinton, in the confirmation hearings for her nomination as U.S. Secretary of State,  mentioned the virtues of microfinance during her opening remarks, praising the work of Ann Dunham, Barrack Obama’s late mother, as a pioneer of microfinance in Indonesia.

Clinton said, “In my own work on microfinance around the world - from Bangladesh to Chile to Vietnam to South Africa and many other countries - I’ve seen first-hand how small loans given to poor women to start small businesses can raise standards of living and transform local economies.”

According to her, “President Obama’s mother had planned to attend a microfinance forum at the Beijing women’s conference in 1995 that I participated in. Unfortunately, she was very ill and couldn’t travel and sadly passed away a few months later. But I think it’s fair to say that her work in international development, the care and concern she showed for women and for poor people around the world, mattered greatly to her son, and certainly has informed his views and his vision. We will be honored to carry on Ann Dunham’s work on microfinance and poverty alleviation in the months and years ahead.”