MPs Speak Out For Africa

4.42.52pm GMT Mon 4th Jul 2005

Annette Brooke meeting women in Ghana working thanks to microfinance loans

Prior to the Live 8 concert, the march in Edinburgh on Saturday 2nd July, and the G8 Summit at Gleneagles this week, MPs devoted a day to debating 'Poverty in Africa' in the House of Commons on Thursday.

Annette Brooke MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Microfinance, spoke about the need for more money to be spent on microfinance projects to help meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

A community in Ghana where microfinance projects help families

Gareth Thomas, the Minister of State from the Department of International Development, who is an advocate of microfinance and supports Annette Brooke's all party group, paid tribute to her commitment to and championing of the micro-credit issues in Parliament.

Speaking in the debate, Annette Brooke MP said:

"I have been fortunate enough to visit a number of microfinance projects in Ghana. I visited villages in which trust banks of about 20 women were formed. Each woman had her own simple business and working capital was supplied by a group loan. The women supported one another with their enterprises and, amazingly, loan repayments were almost 100 per cent.

"Microfinance allows poor people to increase their sources of income. It is an important tool in tackling extreme poverty, but it also helps to support all the other millennium development goals. It is particularly important for the empowerment of women. It offers a sustainable approach to development, helping families to create businesses. Microfinance works by giving people a hand up, rather than a handout.

"I want to draw the attention of the Secretary of State to our most important demand. We want the G8 summit to encourage the World Bank, the IMF and the African Development Bank as well as African central banks and finance ministries to give microfinance increased emphasis, given that 2005 is the UN's year of microcredit."