A Comprehensive Review of Microfinance Impacts, Sustainability and Outreach

Abstract

This study reviews peer reviewed journal articles on microfinance impacts, sustainability, and outreach over the period 1997 to 2011. The review suggests mixed results on the impacts of microfinance worldwide, and fails to discover a concrete relationship between outreach and sustainability. However, the review confirms microfinance institutions extend financial and nonfinancial services to the bottom of the pyramid ignored by traditional financial institutions and considered un-bankable. The paper contributes to extant microfinance literature and guides inexperienced microfinance practitioners toward further academic research and publishing their work in relevant journals.