Dawit Kidane

Sustainable Rural Finance: Where the Cooperatives Stand? Dawit Kidane

Agriculture is still a leading economic sector, exporter, and source of livelihood in many developing countries. The accessibility of a good financial service is also considered as one of the engines of economic development. Credit provision is one of the principal components of rural development, which helps to attain rapid and sustainable growth of rural sector. It is generally the rules and regulations of the formal financial institutions that have created the myth that the poor are not bankable, and since they can?t afford the required collateral, they are considered as un creditworthy. The limited access to bank credit, the high interest rates charged by local money lenders and other factors that faced by the rural community led to find the Cooperatives as an alternative rural financial institutions to solve such problems all over the world. This book has been designed in such as way to address all issues related to rural finance so that the readers will be able to learn how the cooperatives are responsible and able to maintain the sustainability of rural finance.