The Business of Micro Loans

KPBS | By KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published February 8, 2007 at 10:24 AM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

A local nonprofit group is helping women refugees start up their own businesses with the help of micro-loans. Host Tom Fudge speaks with the president of WEI about her all-volunteer organization and h

Tom Fudge: Last year the Nobel Prize for economics went to Muhammad Yunus. The man from Bangladesh built his reputation by creating a system of micro loans. The loans would be extended to poor villagers so they can start small businesses. Yunus proved that practice wasn't just the right thing to do. It was also good business. These poor people would actually pay back the loans.

Micro loans are also the business of a San Diego-based group called Women's Empowerment International, or WEI.

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Guest

Winifred Cox, president and co-founder of Women's Empowerment International, or WEI

End Music: Dirty Harry by Gorillaz, from the album Demon Days (2005)