It is widely recognised that poor clients need more than finance to break out of conditions of poverty. In the first instance they may need to overcome health problems and malnutrition. Then they may have complicated decisions to make in terms of how to earn money, whether to develop new enterprises, which technologies to adopt, where to sell produce, how to react to problems, how to manage multiple demands on limited cash resources and how to build up assets for security or larger investments. Thus an ideal situation would see rural households receiving a coordinated combination of services to improve their health, nutrition, family planning, education, business activities and so on.

Many development organisations that have moved into the provision of microfinance, do also provide other services. However, if they need to cover costs and remain financially viable, it raises questions about whether or not non-banking services can be provided on a sustainable basis. There are a number of successful "credit with education" models, which use the group-based approach to microfinance as an opportunity to provide low-cost education services to clients. There has also been a growing interest in providing business development services as a commercial enterprise in recent years and experience and innovations have been increasing in this field.