The rural poor face a major challenge to access financial services provided by the formal banking system. These poor are excluded from the system because of the requirements imposed on them by that banking sector. The microfinance promise is to ensure that the excluded have access to financial products. Financial intermediation of microfinance through microcredit, micro-transfers, micro-saving and micro-insurance has gained popularity in the developing countries of the world during the past thirty years. For these countries the question is to determine the potential role of microfinance in...