A direct consequence of the high sums on loan is the long credit periods of 20
or 25 years, for only a distribution of amortisation payments over a long period permits the hope of reducing the financial burden over each unit of time to such a
degree that it is tolerable for the target group in question. The dilemma is, however,
that long maturities are precisely what can hardly be reconciled with the
insecure social and economic situation of the fringe population. In the first place,
long loan periods imply a high absolute expenditure on interest payments and
thereby absorb resources which households with low incomes urgently require for
other purposes. But of more importance is the fact that the economic future of
these families is hardly predictable for themselves, for which reason they are
rightly reluctant to assume long-term financial obligations. Closely connected
with this is the further problem of how long they will live or work in the same
place. A case study in Guatemala** shows that the level of a family’s income is
not so much dependent on the level of the individual income of one of its members
as determined by the number of its members who are earning. This number,
however, changes in course of time, since, for example, persons who are earning
today may found a household of their own and thereby reduce the income of the
origina family; or, conversely, the children of today may start earning and
increase the family income. In the course of 20 years, this effect alone can
repeatedly shift the level of the family income substantially up or down. Finally,
it is low incomes in particular that, because of their restricted scope for manoeuvre,
are especially exposed to the rate of inflation, which in many developing
countries is extremely high. The real incomes of the lower social strata in Brazil,
for example, have fallen considerably in the long term.” For these reasons,
families with low incomes prefer successive small credits with maturities of 3-5
years.*