Financial sustainability and poverty outreach within a network of village banks in Cameroon: A multi DEA approach

Isabelle Piot-Lepetit () and Joseph Nzongang
Additional contact information
Isabelle Piot-Lepetit: Marchés, Organisations, Institutions et Stratégies d'Acteurs - Cirad - Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - CIHEAM-IAMM - Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier - CIHEAM - Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes - Montpellier SupAgro - Institut national d’études supérieures agronomiques de Montpellier
Joseph Nzongang: Université de Dschang

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Microfinance institutions face a double bottom-line. They perform financial tasks by giving microcredits to their customers and support projects aiming at reducing poverty. In doing so, they have to be financially self-sufficient and to target poor people excluded from the traditional financial systems. However, a trade-off may exist between financial sustainability and poverty outreach for these institutions. By using a multi-DEA approach, this paper shows that even if a trade-off exists for 15% of the MC2 (Mutuelles Communautaires de Croissance) in Cameroon, there is no trade-off for 46% of them. In order to increase, without trade-off, financial and social performance of inefficient MC2, a benchmarking approach combing DEA and performance indicators has been developed. DEA is used for identifying best-practices and setting benchmarking goals. Performance indicators are used for characterizing areas needing improvements and following the evolution of MC2 toward their goals, i.e., for implementing benchmarking. Complementarity of both approaches provides a tool box for improving financial and social efficiency and reducing the trade-off between financial sustainability and poverty outreach of microfinance institutions.

Keywords: data envelopment analysis; performance indicator; financial efficiency; social efficiency; benchmarking; ratio analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (46)

Published in European Journal of Operational Research, 2014, 234 (1), pp.319-330. ⟨10.1016/j.ejor.2013.10.004⟩

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02639487

DOI: 10.1016/j.ejor.2013.10.004

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().