A Micro Finance Institutions’ (MFIs) national training program was officially launched at Prime Holdings, yesterday.

Funded by the Ministry of Finance (MINECOFIN) and organized by the Association of Micro Finance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR), the program was planned for MFI’s staff and leadership so as to prop up the sector.

Corporate governance, accounting, credit analysis and financial analysis are the main topics being accentuated, a route appreciated by Francois Kanimba, the Central Bank’s Governor who was the events guest of honour.

"AMIR put in much effort and in such a short time has put up this program and I must thank them especially for their know-how in selecting the priority areas to start with,” he said, adding that as he has reiterated in previous meetings, if the governance of these institutions is not right, they will collapse.

On credit analysis, the Governor acknowledged that in the past, things were handled unprofessionally.

"Providing credit is a business yet we realized that in the earlier collapse of the sector, credit giving procedures were often weighed down with sentiment,” he reminded participants.

Kanimba suggested that efforts be made to see to it that follow up mechanisms are put in place to ensure efficiency.

He said that the program shouldn’t only end with the service providers but must also reach the beneficiaries to ensure good results.

He stressed that the training is the number one step but that follow ups on whether it is bearing fruit is another measure they are considering.

Daniel Bavugamenshi, the AMIR board chairman also reiterated the fact that in the past, MFI’s faced many setbacks due to many reasons but they were now training to sort them out.

"We now know how to make good reports, reports which will in the end help us in properly managing our institutions,” he said, underscoring that the reports were not merely made to be presented to the Central Bank.

He mentioned issues such as improper credit giving, unqualified managers and institution leaders, manual operations and lack of funds as some of the problems that had pinned down the MF sector.

Giving testimonies on the ongoing program, trainee representatives acknowledged that the program is indeed beneficial with some vowing to show better results henceforth.

The training is done by experts from the consortium ALAFIA, AMIR’s equivalent in Benin and AQUADEV, an international NGO focusing on development projects in Africa, with microfinance as one of its target areas.

"It is very good to undergo training in accounting because MFI’s don’t have good accounting practices,” Dr. Valérie de Briey, AQUADEV’s microfinance expert told The New Times.

"You can’t make good decisions without proper financial statements,” she said, explaining that these feed into the decision making processes by board members for the future of an organization.

Dr. Valérie de Briey observed that the trainee groups are very participative.

MINECOFIN’s, Francois Ngarambe, said that though holistically the financial sector was improving, it still has challenges to wrestle with.

"You are among the people with the highest outreach in this country,” Ngarambe told the assembly, stressing the need to strengthen the sector.

The sector remains very small – contributing only some five percent of the country’s GDP, and very shallow as only 19 percent of the adult population accesses formal financial services.

Despite the difficulties, he said progressive achievements were also many and pointed out other ongoing improvement activities such as savings mobilization, social security reform and skills development strategies for the financial sector.

Ends