Capacity building: Association trains over 380 Microfinance Institutes in 6 months
NAN-HE-14
Institute
By Lucy Nwachukwu
Abuja, Oct.19, 2016 (NAN) The Association of Non-Bank Microfinance Institutions of Nigeria (ANMFIN) said it trained over 380 microfinance institutes on capacity building in its recently established ANMFIN Training Institute in six months.
The Executive Secretary, ANMFIN, Dr Godbless Safugha, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the training was to capacitate microfinance institution practitioners and position the sub-sector for a quantum leap.
“In six months of operation in six regions, ANMFIN trained over 380 MFIs in various course modules to increase their ability to access private and public intervention funding for rural outreach.
Safugha said “191 institutions with 233 individual participants have been trained on how to access MSME Development Fund.
“We trained 172 institutes out of which 120 institutions were sponsored by RUFIN, with a total participant of 220 on Rural Business Plan.
“On Savings Mobilization training, six microfinance institutions were trained and 11 institutes were also trained on Warehouse Receipt System.”
A report by Intellectual Capital Advisory Services (Intellcap) shows that microfinance market in Nigeria accounts for 93.79 per cent micro credit demand to the tune of N2.82 trillion.
The report validated the justification of the microfinance policy and regulatory framework introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2005.
“The policy identified weak institutional capacity occasioned by the prolonged sub-optimal performance of many erstwhile community banks, microfinance and development finance institutions.
“This is due to incompetent management, weak internal controls, poor corporate governance and lack of well-defined operations.
“Expert opinions recommend that optimisation of the opportunities in the microfinance market can only be fueled by the right financing and capacity development of the sector operators.
“This expert recommendation has found expression in ANMFINs bold move towards accomplishing its strategic target for 2016, leading to the establishment of the ANMFIN Training Institute.”
Safugha said in order to resolve capacity gap in the sub-sector, ANMFIN’s conducted a training needs assessment which resulted in the development of the Rural Business Plan Formulation modules.
He said that this was done in partnership with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Rural Finance Building Institutions Programme (RUFIN).
According to him, other capacity building modules introduced to the microfinance market include Product Development, Corporate Governance and Risk Management, Corporate Management Profile, Savings Mobilization, Warehouse Receipt System and many other modules.
He said they were all geared at enhancing the ability of microfinance institutions to manage liquidity and serve the clients better as well as increase outreach to the unreached. (NAN)
LCN/COA/IA