Finance and Risk Assessment Team: Log # 2 by Jhanelle Gopie

For the last week or so, the Finance group has been reading about country context and its importance when it comes to microfinancing. A country’s context is the different aspects that make the particular country unique from the rest of the world, such as governmental regulations, cultural impacts, economic mobility, and others. This past week, we read an article about Nigeria and the demand for microfinance institutions. At first, the article discussed the importance of Islam to poverty-stricken countries and it truly shocked me. Maybe it’s because I am not heavily involved in religion, but I never realized how much someone’s faith could alter his or her moneymaking decisions. One of the statistics in the article stated that most Muslim-practicing Nigerians would leave their current banks if there were a bank strictly based on Islam banking principles. Some Nigerians don’t even have a bank or an ability to borrow or invest because they are strictly against the interest laws placed on the banks at hand. That is amazing! It is amazing to know that there is something more important to people than money. You would think that living in such a culturally diverse society, people would find something that gives them passion and drive other than simply making money.

This article and its statistics speak volumes as to what helping others can do for you. People like to believe that those who live in poverty solely want to be rich or accumulate some type of wealth. Privileged people assume that the less-fortunate are looking for “get-rich-quick schemes” and that nothing else matters. However, that is not the consensus of the entire poverty-stricken community. Yes, people living below the poverty line in Nigeria want wealth and want to be able to provide for their families to the best of their abilities; however, their love for Allah and faith in Islam is far more important than the value of a dollar. They know that if they do away with their religion to make a quick buck, that it could affect what happens to them in the afterlife. I’m so used to seeing and reading about people who are willing to step on anyone to get to the top that it was so extraordinarily refreshing to know that there are people who are different from this.