“…The exact opposite results were reported by Batra (), who found a limited contribution of branch expansion to the bank profitability in India, whilst Ikhide () demonstrated that the extension of the branch offices of commercial banks to rural areas could help attenuate the poor savings performance in most African economies. On the other side, there is a growing plethora of empirical studies in the microfinance industry, which indicates that serving more customers augment the profitability of MFIs (see Abate, Borzaga, & Getnet, ; Adhikary & Papachristou, ; Chikalipah, ; Cull, Demirgu¨ç‐Kunt, & Morduch, ; Hermes & Lensink, ; Hermes, Lensink, & Aljar, ; Kumar Kar, ; Quayes, ).…”