Friday 27 August 2010

Workshops for Global Microcredit Summit 2011 announced

Microfinance Focus, Aug 23, 2010: Global Microfinance Summit which brings together microcredit practitioners, advocates, donor agencies, international financial institutions and others involved with microcredit to promote best practices will be held in Spain from November 14-17, 2011 in Valladolid, Spain.

The Summit’s goal is to ensure that 175 million of the world’s poorest families, especially women of those families, are receiving credit for self-employment and other financial and business services and to help 100 million families rise above the US $1 per day threshold by 2015. Read more

Sunday 1 August 2010

MFIs tap technology as the bridge to reach unbanked millions

Kenyan microfinance institutions have for a long time served the unbanked segments of the population despite several obstacles in their quest to access this niche.

It is estimated that micro-enterprises contribute about 18 per cent of Kenya’s gross domestic product and 25 per cent of non-agricultural GDP.

It is thus not surprising that many MFI’s have taken to using technology, especially mobile phone platforms, to cut on high operational costs and reliance on commercial banks while increasing focus on core functions.

Early this year, during the opening of the Africa-Middle East Regional Micro-Credit Summit in Nairobi, President Mwai Kibaki affirmed the central role micro-finance plays in national development by striving to address the challenge of providing financial services. Read more