Challenges for Inclusive Finance Expansion: the Case of

AbstractSocial inclusion might be achieved in different ways. Microfinance and microcredit are two “inclusive finance” strategies that represent two of these ways. In this paper, we attempt to shed some light on conditions helping to increase social inclusion by investigating the replication of microcredit methodologies in a particular context: Brazil. A qualitative in-depth case study, focusing the path of a Brazilian microfinance institution (MFI) called CrediAmigo, was conducted during 6 months. Our specific research question was: what are the conditions facilitating the replication of the CrediAmigo methodology, implemented successfully in the Northeast of Brazil, to other Brazilian regions? This study is probably the first to provide an integrated perspective of critical issues related to the replication of microcredit methodologies in a Brazilian context and the findings reported here are likely to support managers of MFIs, as well as Brazilian policy makers, in taking steps to increase the chances of success in the expansion of microcredit operations across Brazil. The transferability of the results of this study to other contexts than the Brazilianone is open to future investigation. Keywords: inclusive finance; social inclusion; microcredit methodology; microfinance; multilevel framework.