THE Zimbabwe Association of Microfinance Institutions (Zamfi) has partnered the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) to offer a practical qualification relevant to the industry needs in a bid to professionalise the microfinance sector.
By Staff Reporter
The Executive Certificate in Microfinance and Entrepreneurship (ECEME) course, which was piloted in Bulawayo last year, is set to be extended to Harare this year.
In a statement, Zamfi chief executive Godfrey Chitambo said the programme was an effort to professionalise the microfinance sector, as practitioners felt that a specific educational, practical and industry demanded course in microfinance was desirable and necessary.
“The first intake proved to be a huge success with an intake of 20 and 17 completed the course. ZAMFI as the apex board for the majority of MFIs in the country is aware of the fact that MFIs do face a myriad of challenges both at strategic, institutional and market levels. The most pressing issues relate to control of credit risk, over-indebtedness, quality of management, and business planning and risk management among others,” he said.
“In partnership with NUST CCE, ZAMFI has managed to design a world class microfinance programme meant to expand the knowledge, skills and insights of microfinance practitioners so as to be able to steer their MFIs towards high performance execution. In any event, according to a ZAMFI 2010 strategic plan, skills deficiency ranked highest and it is time to get this out of the way.”
