Over the last decade, MicroSave has emerged as an industry leader in the area of market-led microfinance, contributing significantly to the global debate on the importance of broadening the boundaries of financial service provision to the poor. MicroSave was a founding member of the Product Development Taskforce, which was established by CGAP to promote a coherent and high-quality approach to the development of toolkits and training around this growth area in microfinance(members included representatives from CGAP, USAID’s MBP and AIMS projects, and GTZ). In addition, MicroSave was essentially the operational wing of the CGAP Savings Mobilisation Working Group and the current Programme Director was the Chair of the working group for many years. More
MicroSave has received a great deal of international attention and accolades for its work in the areas of market research and product development for microfinance. Many would argue that MicroSave put the issue of “listening to clients” on the microfinance map in a relatively short period of time and with very limited resources. But MicroSave continues to expand on the range of issues on which its renowned systematic and structured, toolkit-based approaches are used.
MicroSave’s primary strength continues to be the interplay between its study, Action Research Partner (ARP) and toolkit development programmes, which create remarkable synergies and provide unique opportunities to 1) identify practice-based issues, 2) conduct market and ARP practice-based studies on these issues, 3) develop draft toolkits, 4) test and refine these toolkits with the ARPs, and thus 5) disseminate credible, practice-based, practical toolkits and information.
LessThe MicroSave practice-based learning system can be described as follows:
MicroSave follows a unique approach that promotes the development of a market-led and more client-responsive approach to delivering financial services among microfinance institutions (MFIs). The four-pronged approached followed by MicroSave is further explained below:
- Research Activities: Primary field-level research regarding the financial service needs and preferences of the poor, More
MicroSave has already completed and published over 70 action-oriented, operations research papers and 30 case studies on a wide variety of topics including clients’ needs and behaviour, reasons for clients leaving MFI programmes, strategic marketing for financial institutions, staff incentive schemes, product costing and pricing, the product development process, institution and product risk analysis etc.. (Visit the Research Papers Section for details).
There are two main components of the study programme:
- Need and Demand for Financial Services (Demand Side Issues)
- Meeting the Need and Demand (Supply Side Issues)
Less - Action Research Programmes: working intensively on the ground with a selected group of microfinance institutions (MFIs), More
MicroSave works with around 20-25 carefully selected Action Research Partner financial institutions to assist them to deliver market-led financial services to the low-income market. This includes all aspects of strategic marketing, business planning and organisational strengthening necessary to underpin the support on product development and innovations in product delivery, operations management, process mapping and risk management. This approach encompasses analysis of clients’ demand and views; strategic business planning, corporate brand and identity development and communication; product development, testing and rollout; product costing, pricing and marketing; staff incentives; customer service and delivery systems, etc.
Past Action Research Partners have included Equity Bank, Kenya Post Office Savings Bank, FINCA-Uganda and Tanzania, Teba Bank, Centenary Bank, Commercial Microfinance Ltd., U-Trust, and Uganda Microfinance Union. (Visit the Action Research Page for more on the programme and to view MicroSave’s current partners). Less
- Toolkit and curriculum development for ARPs and Consulting Clients More
- Training and extensive information dissemination. More
For further information and details, please click at
MicroSave brochure.
To view our latest Annual Report, please
click here.
