ESAF Microfinance & Investments Ltd. (EMFIL)
Mission: To positively impact the lives of more than 1 million low income families by 2015 by offering them exclusive financial services along with other services like health care, education, housings and livelihood support
Decent Work Area:
Formalization
Innovation:
Non-Financial Services: Business Development Services
Awareness raising campaign and business development services for the formalization of enterprises. Induce clients to register their business with the aim of long term sustainability
Results:
Positive impact on formalisation status and business practices:
Strong increase (70%) in registration of businesses with relevant authorities
Ownership of bank accounts increased but impact insignificant (2% increase)
Awareness about government support schemes was affected positively (multiplied by 3 times in the treatment group but decreased in the control group), yet no increase in usage of government support schemes
Maintaining books of accounts improved significantly by 15%
Perception of the importance of the household enterprise for income generation increased by 17%
Inconclusive results related to the longer term impact, such as improvement of the social outcomes for the clients – for example:
Negative impact on monthly household income: control group sees larger shift from lowest to next income group
