Rob:  It’s certainly not the lack of ambition that keeps most of Africa mired in poverty, but the lack of investment capital.  It’s a problem around much of the developing world and one that could well be solved with the smallest of investments on our part.  Joining me now is a new contributor to our show.  Chaz Kyser is a visiting scholar from Langston University who writes on issues facing people of African descent.
Chaz Kyser:  Well, Rob, there’s an old proverb that says that you give a man a fish, he can eat for a day, but if you teach a man how to fish, he can eat for a lifetime.  Recently, we met a successful Oklahoman who is making it part of his life work to help fellow entrepreneurs help themselves.
Chaz Kyser:  With children in their arms, Malian women often support their families with what they sell along the road.  Commerce at its simplest, limited not by ambition but by the lack of capital.
This is a handmade print, from Africa, made with vegetable dyes.
Chaz:  Back in Oklahoma, Phil Smith is one of a growing number of Americans hoping to help those in poorer nations.  But the entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist is not giving money away; Smith is lending it through a process called microcredit.
Phil Smith:  Microcredit, in its simplest form, is simply making small loans to people to help them either start or improve their businesses.  So with a small loan, they can improve their businesses, make an increase in their incomes and really change their lives.
Chaz:  Smith is the author of A BILLION BOOTSTAPS, a best-selling book about microcredit lending.
Smith:  There’s an old fable that you can lift yourself up by your own bootstraps.  So that saying, in America, is pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, which means starting with nothing and growing a business or growing your family’s life.
Chaz:  In the book, he shows how even the smallest of loans, $50 to $1,000 dollars, can help a struggling business owner immensely.
Smith:  There are about 4 billion people in the world that live on less than $4 a day.
Chaz:  A small loan can be used in any number of ways, from baking and distributing food to making and selling fabrics, resulting in much needed income for those living in the poorest of countries around the world.
Smith:  In Rwanda, maybe the average income is a couple of hundred dollars a year, so the first loan might be $50. And that’s why microcredit works much better the poorer the country, because for the same amount of money, you can make many more loans and affect people’s lives at the same level.  It’s often the difference whether their children get fed or not fed; whether their children go to school or don’t go to school, get clothes or don’t get clothes. 
Chaz:  Smith says microlending is so much more beneficial than just charity.
Smith:  It’s still by far the best way to help people out of poverty, and a lot of it is because they help themselves.  We have found that international aid is a complete disaster.  You can help people for a short period of time, but over a long period of time they become dependent, the money gets wasted, it doesn’t go to the right places.  But if you can help people help themselves, they will do what’s right.
Chaz:  The majority of microloans are given to women, and Smith says that this isn’t by accident. 
Smith:  People that are in the business, generally, will tell you, women are much more interested in helping their families.  They typically need to have jobs that are near their children so they can take care of them, rather than jobs away.  In most societies, men get the jobs first, instead of the women.
Chaz:  Smith encourages those seeking a unique and powerful way to help others to consider microcredit, giving borrowers from all over the world, a real way to pull themselves up by their boot straps.
Rob:  So, Chaz, why should the average person consider using microcredit to help others?
Chaz:  Okay, well, as Phil Smith said, microcredit is just so much more beneficial than just charity.  Now, I mean giving to others in any way is certainly commendable, whether it’s $20 to a homeless person or whether it’s giving clothes to the Salvation Army or to Good Will; however when you give using those means, you’re really just offering people a temporary fix to get out of the situation, you’re really just helping them right then.  Microcredit however, though, allows you to help others help themselves for the long term throughout their lives.
Rob:  I think an interesting point, you know, in this country if we need some money and you have decent credit, you can go down to the bank and get a loan; but even if you’re doing everything right in some of these other countries, it’s often difficult to get money from a bank.
Chaz:  It is, and what’s more in developing countries, the self-employed tend to comprise over 50 percent of the labor force.  So there may not even be enough banks to give loans to all these people; even when they do, banks tend to have very high interest rates, whereas with microloans, they are very low, reasonable, interest rates.  
Rob:  Now, we focused on Africa, but this is a program that truly is worldwide?
Chaz:  It is worldwide; in fact, people in Mexico are benefitting from microloans, people as far away as India and Russia Ukraine are benefitting from microloans.
Rob:  Alright, well, thank you Chaz.  Now if you would like to learn more about Microcredit just go to our website at OkHorizon.com where we have a link to the book, A BILLION BOOT STRAPS, by Phil Smith.