Microfinance Thrust By Gates Foundation (MSFT)

Using handheld devices, motorbikes and even smartphones, micro-lenders such as ShoreBank International hope to give poor communities access to safe and affordable ways to save their hard-earned cash. Such innovation is being driven by a new project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which said on Wednesday it will give $38 million to help 18 micro-lenders explore ways to make savings accounts available to 11 million poor people across 12 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America over the next five years.

Now the foundation, started by billionaire Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda, hopes the grant money will help micro-lenders find creative ways to give the poor savings accounts using existing client bases in some of the world's poorest countries. ShoreBank Financial expects to reach about 1 million micro-savers over the next few years working with four partner institutions in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

Microsoft has long been accused of restrictive trade practices and monopolistic tendencies. But it has also tenaciously held on to its number one position in the OS market. Now that Bill Gates is focusing on the Gates foundation, one hopes that some of the same magic and missionary zeal which made him the world’s richest man may rub off on the philanthropic work being undertaken, in the best interests of the world’s poor.