70 – 3. Pushing the boundaries of innovative finance sector players. To offer products to their customers on a sustainable basis, MFIs need to pay careful attention to their financial, institutional and organi- sational viability. The MFIs would usually be well established in the com- munity, which gives them an edge in terms of assessing a borrowers’ ability to repay and enables them to rely on peer pressure and community cohesion to obtain repayment. In the water and sanitation sector, micro-finance can be used to pro- vide access to finance to those who would otherwise be excluded, such as households, SSWSPs or even community based organisations (CBOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It can help address the affordability constraint at household level, as it enables them to spread investments over a longer period of time and reduces the impact of the initial cash outlay. MFIs may also be present in areas
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