What Will I Learn?

Low-income people typically do not have access to appropriate financial services to smooth income and consumption, manage risks, and support income-generating activities. The lack of availability of financial services is particularly acute in rural areas, for women and for the poorest segments of the population. Micro-finance uses innovative delivery mechanisms and product designs to extend credit, savings and other financial services to the poor, allowing them to reduce poverty. This course aims to provide knowledge and skills to enhance MFIs to provide services to low-income people in cost-effective manner

Indicative Content

• 1. Basic principles of micro finance and community development.
  
  

  1.1 Financial Instruments to enable Graduation of Clients

  1.2 Group Lending; recent theoretical advances

  1.3 Mobilization of Voluntary Savings

  1.4 Targeting the Hard-core poor

  1.5 Creating enabling environment for micro-credit institution

• 2. Human resource management: hiring, training and motivating for success.
  
  

  2.1 MFI Employee Incentive Schemes

  2.2 Leadership training for microfinance professionals.

• 3. Creating and propagating an effective institutional culture.
  
  

  3.1 Internal governance issue at MFIs Graying of the management and line of succession at the flagship institutions

  3.2 New product development for the MFIs.

  3.3 Replication of successful MFI models

  3.4 An overview of a comprehensive toolkit for an effective MFI.

  3.5 Conceptual of model of micro-finance delivery process.

• 4. Regulatory framework for Micro Finance Institutions.
  
  

  4.1 Legal and regulatory framework for the success of Micro-credit

  4.2 Mobilization of Voluntary Savings

• 5. Managing risks, including credit risk, fraud and security risk.
  
  

  5.1 Micro-credit for marginal and small farmers.

  5.2 Credit guarantee schemes.

  5.3 Over crediting and the possibility of cross-financing.

  5.4 Legal and regulatory framework for the success of Micro-credit.

  5.5 Wholesaling of micro-credit and Apex Organization.

  5.6 Management of Information Systems.

  5.7 Qualitative and Participatory Methodologies for monitoring.