Enabling Small Entrepreneurs to Recover From Ebola

This report assesses how microfinance providers and their clients have fared under the impact of the crisis. This research has shown that they have proven to be remarkably resilient, and have employed an array of viable risk management strategies to survive and recover from the crisis. The report concludes that providing loans to small entrepreneurs is a vital tool for restoring local economies affected by disaster and conflict, and that the risks are manageable. It therefore recommends the international development community to consider investing more in the microfinance sector in crisis-prone economies.

This report is the result of research conducted under Cordaid’s Microfinance Sector Support Program by the Sierra Leone Association of Microfinance Institutions and Ayani Inclusive Financial Sector Consultants to assess the impact of the Ebola crisis on clients and on microfinance providers. The research was undertaken from the last week of December 2014 to mid-February 2015 and collected comparative information from the period preceding the Ebola crisis (May 2014) and during the crisis (November 2014 to January 2015).