Time To Bring Microlenders To The Table
Dec 8th, 2008 | By Dawn Rivers Baker | Category: Politics & PolicyOver the past few months, while a horrified nation watched the financial markets implode before their unbelieving eyes, the microenterprise development industry has been engaged in a certain amount of throat-clearing and hand-waving. The Association for Enterprise Opportunity (AEO), the national trade organization for the industry, has repeatedly (if a bit diffidently) pointed out that microlenders are still alive and well. The AEO has also pointed out that it is a mistake to ignore microbusinesses when contemplating ways and means for getting the economy back on its feet.
More recently, a group of the nation’s largest microenterprise development outfits, along with the AEO and the Aspen Institute, have been making progress on crafting and tweaking their programs to help their clients deal with a faltering economy and to expand their reach to even more microbusinesses. The one thing that has always gotten in their way has been a single-minded focus on low-income microentrepreneurs that seems to be waning. For example, the focus of the AEO’s annual summit this year was encouraging the microenterprise development industry to take its place in the larger community of economic development officials and organizations. The question that remains for the industry now is how to obtain a seat at the larger table of small business financing solutions. When that problem is solved, with appropriate support from state and federal policy makers, then perhaps microbusinesses will be several steps closer to the financing products they have been waiting for.
