Microfinance is a $92 billion industry, with more than 100 million borrowers in more than 75 countries around the world. But as regular readers of NextBillion know, it is no silver bullet to poverty, and previously held assumptions that extending microloans to impoverished people is a sure path out of poverty have been challenged.

Microcredit alone can afford borrowers, especially women, more freedom in their choices, and can smooth shocks from unexpected events like illness, crop failures or livestock deaths. But the reality is that access to safe, affordable and reliable credit is just one important part of a broader set of resources needed by people living in poverty.

MCE Social Capital, a US-based nonprofit impact investing firm, understands that simply gaining access to credit is not enough to break the cycle of poverty for most families.