Forget global gloom and doom. Amidst the economic carnage one bank in Kenya is making booming profits – by offering  micro loans to small business people such as  seamstresses and egg sellers.

We join Philip Ndungu on his daily round as he supplies over seven hundred customers  a tasty morsel consisting of boiled egg with salsa and fried sausage.

Philip’s enterprising  business  is made possible by a tiny $100 loan from  Equity Bank.

His hard work is reaping rewards – he now employs an assistant and the profits are paying his high school fees. Without the loan he would have been forced to drop his studies.

Micro banking isn’t simply a 'feel good'  business in Kenya. The Equity Bank outperforms all comers on the Nairobi stock exchange and the bank's founder and CEO, James Mwangi, has strong  views on why it's so successful when many Western banks are going belly up.

For starters he believes the bank’s clients, mostly small traders and poor people,  are as honest as the day is long . The bank’s default rate on loans bears this out and would be  the envy of  banks anywhere in the globe.

And his analysis of the world's financial crisis is hard to beat? "That was driven by greed as opposed to a need to serve".

Begorra!

Also coming up, David Brill reports from Ireland.

In less than twelve months Ireland has gone from a booming economy to one where dole queues stretch around the corner – a sight not seen in Europe for decades.

As the global recession bites hard unemployment  may reach a whopping fifteen per cent by year’s end.

Furthermore, there's no money in government coffers to try and solve the problem.

Find out more this Sunday, 8:30pm on Dateline.

On air: 2nd May 2009