| www.MicroSave.org Contact us | ||||||
| ||||||
MicroSave News, Views, and Reviews | ||||||
In this issue:
| ||||||
 | ||||||
| News from MicroSave | Brief Announcements | |||||
Strategic Business Planning Exercises Completed for Action Research Partners in the Philippines MicroSave conducted strategic business planning exercises with its Action Research Partners in Philippines – TSPI, TSKI, ASKI and OK Bank. The exercises involved a range of people from Your browser may not support display of this image.Board members to operational staff and were greatly appreciated.MicroSave’s approach to strategic business planning goes into significant depth of analysis to examine mission, values and big audacious goal for the next 5-10 years, and to conduct a detailed SWOT analysis and competition analysis. These analysis then form the basis on which the organisations develop their business strategy to realise the audacious goal. There after a “KOGMA Analysis” is used to map out in great detail all the critical success factors necessary to implement the strategy before finally building the financial projections. A documented business plan, detailed down from vision to activities, with defined monitoring parameters was developed by the organisations. The TSKI team said the “method used was very practical, simple to understand and helpful on the job.” | Access to Finance Conference, May 4 -5 2009, Lagos , Nigeria MicroSave spoke on branchless banking at the Access to Finance Conference in Lagos between May 4 to 5. The panel discussion was engaging and lively and brought together experiences on electronic banking from Kenya and South Africa to inform workshop participants. According to a participant survey, “This session was extremely well rated by the participants, and many cited it as the most useful panel of the conference”. After the workshop MicroSave participated in a dialogue workshop with other conference speakers with the Central Bank of Nigeria. In 2009 MicroSave has completed or is conducting electronic banking assignments, in Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. For those interested in learning more about M-Banking, go to the MicroSave website and download the latest M-Banking Briefing Notes.
Append Leadership Summer Camp, April 28 to 30, Cagayan de Oro, Philippines The Alliance of Philippine Partners in Enterprise Development, Inc. is the first network of Christian development NGOs in the Philippines. It has 11 member organisations. The 19th Leadership Camp, held at the Grand Caprice Convention Center, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental from 28th - 30th April 2009, was attended by about 600 participants. MicroSave presented on the best practices on Human Resource Management.
| |||||
| ||||||
Mobile Banking Pilot Initiatives Move Ahead at EKO and mChek MicroSave’s initiatives on supporting pilot testing initiatives continue with its support to Eko and mChek MicroSave supported Eko in the mobile banking pilot and is now helping them with the phased launch. Eko has entered into a partnership with State Bank of India and launched the SBI Mini Savings Bank Account at Uttam Nagar, New Delhi. They are now expanding to other parts of West Delhi by leveraging existing distribution networks to distribute the savings product into the market. Eko is planning to start in other areas also and is also planning to extend the bouquet of products offered with products like inter-city and intra-city remittances and merchant payments.” mChek currently supports a wide range of merchant transactions, bill payments and money transfers for banked customers. They are collaborating with MicroSave on market research that will extend these mobile payments services to currently unbanked, low-income individuals in both urban and rural areas in India.” | ||||||
Deposit Mobilisation Reviews Conducted in Kenya and Malawi A new product now being offered by the MicroSave team in Africa is deposit mobilisation reviews. These reviews draw upon the extensive experience that MicroSave has gathered in over ten years working on deposit mobilisation combined with earlier segmentation analysis exercises. Two deposit mobilisation reviews have been undertaken in 2009, one in Kenya and one in Malawi. While the detailed scope of the reviews was different, each was carefully targeted to identify how to grow and manage growth in deposits. Depending on circumstances, the rapid reviews cover a variety of interwoven areas, including institutional image, product marketing, pricing, segmentation analysis, key processes and delivery channels. The institutions in Kenya and Malawi are in the process of implementing recommendations from the reviews, and while it is too early to judge success, the reviews have been well appreciated by both institutions and are driving positive changes. Demand for deposit mobilisation reviews is growing rapidly, with multiple reviews envisaged in Ghana and Nigeria. | ||||||
| MicroSave’s Training Reviews | ||||||
Applied Microfinance Institute for Budding and Potential MFIs, April 13-23,Lucknow, India The MicroSave managed Applied Microfinance Institute completed its two week residential training for “Budding and Potential MFIs” in April. The training was part of the start of the next round of the Royal Bank of Scotland Foundation India (RBSFI)/Cordaid’s support for new MFIs in under served areas of India. After the selection of the partner MFIs based on the institutional assessment, all the selected organisations went through a two week residential programme on some of the core technical components of the programme - Basic Financial Management, Ratio Analysis and Accounting, Process Mapping and Risk Analysis for MFIs and Human Resource Management. There were also daily plenary sessions, during which the participants met key personalities from the sector and discussed emerging issues facing the sector. Participants found “AMI immensely useful for perspective building”. Fifty participants from 18 “Phase Three” partners of the RBSFI project participated in the training. On average, the courses got 96% good/excellent ratings in terms of relevance of training content, 97% for quality of training material, 86% for level of detail covered by the course, 89% for ease of understanding the course content, 94% for effectiveness of training methods used and 98% for quality/interest level.
AMiDA, April 29 to May 1, Sanur, Bali, Indonesia MicroSave delivered its acclaimed training on product development to a classroom of Filipino and Indonesian bankers, NGO-MFI leaders and technical service providers at the AMiDA annual training event. This training provides an overview of the product development process and introduces the extensive portfolio of MicroSave toolkits to support a systematic approach to product development. Social Performance Management, April 1-3, 2009, Lucknow, India After its role as a region coordinator and member of the Steering Committee of the ImpAct programme,MicroSave has returned to Social Performance Management (SPM) and developed a toolkit to support business-focused SPM. Existing SPM tools are typically used to assess alignment with mission, analyse the depth of the organisation’s outreach and provide some indication of the impact of programmes. However, as a market-led microfinance focused organisation MicroSave’s approach involves quick and easy ways to improve and integrate social performance into day-to-day management – and to focus SPM above all on client and staff satisfaction. Citigroup China Microfinance Training Center (CCMTC), 11th to 14th May, Bejing, China
Customer Service, May 19-21, 2009, Hyderabad, India
| ||||||
| MicroSave’s Upcoming Trainings and Workshops | ||||||
Workshop on Advanced Human Resource Management, June 18-19, Hyderabad, India With MFIs up-scaling at very fast rates, the HR issues have become increasingly complex. Addressing them requires experience and specialised expertise. MicroSave is organising a 2 day workshop in partnership with ShoreCap to discuss the new training toolkit which is based on the Handbook developed by ShoreCap. Training on Internal Audit and Control, June 23-26, Lucknow, India Risk analysis and risk management strategies are critical to building and ensuring sustainable microfinance institutions. The Internal Audit and Control training is targeted towards middle and senior managers who are looking for ways to understand and strengthen their internal control systems, whether to manage operating risks through preventive or detective strategies. Internal auditors would also find the course useful to upgrade their experience and skill set. Applied Microfinance Institute - Africa, August 3-14, Kumasi, Ghana and Applied Microfinance Institute - India, July 13-24, Jaipur, India.
Applied Microfinance Institute, July 13-24, Jaipur, the 3rd AMI India, has been designed to provide two streams: “Microfinance for Bankers and Investors” is designed primarily for Bankers and investors, but not exclusively for them. It will focus on financial management, Loan Portfolio Audit, as well as Capital Structuring and MFI Valuation, while “Generating Competitive Advantage for MFIs” will focus on Process Mapping, Delinquency Management, Internal Audit and Controls, and Human Resources Management.Visit the AMI India 2009 page for more information and to register. Applied Microfinance Institute, August 3-14, Kumasi, Ghana is the second AMI-Africa and continues MicroSave’s commitment to excellence in technical training in Africa. Courses on offer at the 2nd AMI-Africa include:
Visit the AMI Africa 2009 page for more information and to register. Market Research for MicroFinance, August 17-28, 2009, Lucknow, India The training is aimed to train people on tools to be used for qualitative market research. It consists of the standard PRA tools adapted to microfinance, as well as original PRA tools developed by MicroSave. The tools have been used widely for a variety of activities that are critical for a successful MFI. The toolkit overview is available for download here. Participation in this training is by invitation only. | ||||||
| Knowledge Productions | ||||||
| Briefing Notes MicroSave’s latest Briefing Note 72 is on “Internal Controls in Small/Medium MFIs”. It describes the basics of risk management and how to set up effective control mechanisms. India Focus Note 16 and India Focus Note 17, focus on the lessons learnt in India on working in competitive environments and on the challenges of designing and delivering technical assistance. Focus Note 18 discusses the potential of MFIs to be business correspondents and Focus Note 19 points out that without proper control systems, SHG savings are exposed to abuse. The latest Microfinance Podcasts have focused on:
| ||||||
| © 2009 MicroSave | ||||||
| www.MicroSave.org | ||||||
| Contacts | ||||||
| Graham A.N. Wright, Programme Director – India. +91 (0) 9956 291 535 ; Graham@MicroSave.org | ||||||
| David Cracknell, Programme Director – Africa. +254 (0) 733 713 380 ; David@MicroSave.org | ||||||
Also Visit
 |  |
