Calculated confidence between microfinance institution (mfi) and clients counterbalanced by excessive confidence between the manager of mfi and clients

The aim of this paper is to show that confidence and proximity, two ingredients of a genuine relationship between an MFI and a client, have the opposite effect. Moreover, this relationship takes place in two stages. The first stage is in the front office, the negotiation between client and manager using the individual characteristics of the client (age, sex, recidivism and cost of the microcredit "global borrowing rate: TEG") which makes it possible to create calculated confidence. The second stage is in the back office, the operationalisation of the relationship via validation by the MFI manager, using proximities (cultural, geographical, professional and temporal) which can lead to several possibilities from distrust to overconfidence. We drew on the theory of social exchange for its confidence aspect, the literature on confidence and the literature on proximities. The data are secondary, extracted from the database of an MFI in Gabon. The structural equation technique is used. The results indicate on the one hand that the MFI has a calculated confidence towards clients who have a certain experience in borrowing and who are paradoxically of retirement age, and on the other hand, the MFI manager shows an excess of confidence in male clients who borrow in the short term (temporal proximity), who practise the same profession as him (professional proximity due to corporatism) and who share the same language or nationality as him (cultural proximity due to chauvinism and/or patriotism), and paradoxically, are of retirement age. Furthermore, repeat borrowing paradoxically reduces this excess confidence. In conclusion, the confidence calculated in our context is based on two personal characteristics of the client (age and recidivism). The MFI manager's overconfidence is linked simultaneously to the proximity (temporal, cultural and professional) with the client and to the client's personal characteristics (age, sex, rate and recidivism).