Micro finance services to be expanded across 10 Asian countries

by Surekha Galagoda

A two-year program to expand micro finance services across 10 Asian countries was launched recently by Citi, the Foundation for Development Cooperation (FDC) and the Banking With the Poor Network (BWTP).

The grant of US$ 570,000 from the Citi Group Foundation will be used by FDC and BWTP to expand micro finance services in countries including Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam.

The program will promote public-private partnerships and industry best practices that will help existing micro finance providers to expand the reach and range of services to the poor.

Executive Director FDC Craig Wilson said that they will be conducting several symposiums and workshops while plans are afoot to produce a training manual by the end of this year which will be available free. Already a training document on Disaster Management and Preparedness has been printed and translated into four languages while plans are under way to translate the document into Arabic and Portugese.

He said that this program will help take micro finance into new territory. New partnerships within the micro finance industry will help introduce new technology, such as mobile phone banking and diversified products such as asset leases, life insurance and pensions thereby improving the services given to the poor.

Wilson said that partnerships can also improve social service delivery, helping the beneficiaries to make better choices.

Chairman BWTP and AGM Personal Banking Hatton National Bank Chandula Abeywickrema said that the Sri Lanka country report on the micro finance network will be launched in the near future together with the GTZ.

He said that compared to countries such as India and Pakistan Micro finance is in its infancy in Sri Lanka as it is limited to donor finance. He said that micro finance should be broadbased to reach a wide cross section of people in any place around the country.

The risk of donor driven micro finance is that it will cease when donor funds cease, said Abeywickrema. Therefore to overcome this situation we will register the micro finance companies while a new Act will be introduced to streamline the activities of micro finance companies.

CEO Citi Bank Kapila Jayawardena said that micro finance empowers the rural folk and improves the access to finance and Citi supports the micro finance sector through commercial relationships and grants. He said the Citi Bank supports micro finance activities in fifty countries while they have a presence in 100 countries.

FDC established 17 years ago in Australia has a record and commitment to improve the outreach and efficiency of financial services to the poor.

The BWTP network is the leading Pan Asian micro finance network with a diverse and inclusive membership of stakeholders involved in financing, regulation and delivery of micro finance to the poor.

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