(Photo: The Women of Akbarpura, by Flickr user lecercle, used under a Creative Commons license.)

NextBillion readers often ask me why we don't cover the microfinance industry more closely. After all, microfinance is a slam dunk BoP success story: a business strategy that helps low-income communities access high quality, competitively priced financial services. So why not write about it more often?

I typically give a two-part answer to this question. First, I tell readers that, if NextBillion covered every development in the microfinance industry - and we cover some of the more interesting ones - we would morph from a BoP-focused web site into a microfinance-focused web site. And there are many excellent microfinance sites out there already.

The second part of my answer is to say that not every microborrower is an entrepreneur; that our focus at NextBillion.net is more on entrepreneurial approaches to social and environmental issues; and therefore, we don't cover microfinance quite as much as some would like.

This stance is somewhat controversial, since many microfinance institutions tout their assistance to "local entrepreneurs" in fundraising materials and other external communications. Let me clarify: I am not saying that all microborrowers (microfinance clients) are not entrepreneurs; rather, I am simply pointing out that not all microfinance clients are entrepreneurs.

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