The African Development Bank (AfDB) has signed a Grant Agreement with the Alliance Forum Development Programme (Zambia) Limited, for the advancement of microfinance in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) region. The grant is designed to organize the microfinance capacity building training for Central Bank Officers of COMESA Member countries.
African countries including COMESA members have recorded impressive GDP growth in the last decade averaging 4.8 percent. However, poverty levels have continued to rise over the same period. Microfinance empowers populations at the base of the pyramid by providing access to economic opportunities, employment, and self-reliance. Availability of pro-poor microfinance services therefore increase the chance of poor people escaping from poverty, and participating in the growth of small- and middle-income sector of a country. In this regard, capacity development for leading human capital is indispensable in the COMESA region.
The COMESA Monetary Institute, Alliance Forum Foundation and the AfDB have agreed to hold the Microfinance Training Courses for Policy and Development. The training will be held in Lusaka, Zambia, from December 2-8, 2014. The rich experiences and variety of competencies of resource persons and speakers will engage in a prolific discussion, extracting various experiences and ideas from the participants to establish a microfinance institution (MFI). The training is expected to sharpen skills and affairs of policy-makers. Participants will make a presentation on their representative nation's regulatory and supervisory situation. Educating senior experts from COMESA member countries will create a healthy environment for MFIs striving to reduce poverty in their region. It will also help to yield COMESA region's Development Strategy as well as consensus guidelines for the region's microfinance regulation and supervision. At the end of the training, certification by three co-organizers will be issued to participants.
Findings of the training will be shared. The initiative is funded by the Bank's Fund for African Private Sector Assistance (FAPA) Grant. For more information, please visit the website www.allianceforum.org/en/selfhelp/.
