The
National Association of Co-operative Credit Unions of The Gambia (NACCUG), with
funding from the Irish Aid Foundation, recently held a two-day intensive
training session on social performance management for its board members, at the
NACCUG conference hall in Kanifing.
The
training course, which brought together board members from different sister
credit unions, was geared towards enlightening members on social performance,
and to build their capacity in credit union matters.
Speaking
at the training course, Baboucarr Jeng, NACCUG General Manager, said the
activity was part of the three-year project funded by the Irish Aid Foundation
in collaboration with NACCUG, which focuses on building the capacity of credit
unions, both members and staff, on social performance management.
He
explained that credit unions have been in existence since 1992, and since then
they have provided loans and many other types of services, which support the
individual members of credit unions.
He
said the training session was focused on ensuring that board members ask
themselves critical questions, such as what they have done to improve the lives
of people.
Mr
Jeng added that the session would help members analyse the impact that they
have done in people’s lives, so as to be more focused and to share with the
Gambians and other communities that they have surely impacted in people’s
lives.
He
said since then they have not sat back to think about what have been the impact
of the services they provide to those members, but the essence of the training
activity was to help credit unions reflect on the services they provide to
their membership.
He
added that this would help them to look back at the members, and ask themselves
how they have impacted on their lives and livelihood.
“Capacity
building is our key role as an epic organisation, to support the development of
the credit unions throughout the country.”
Mr
Jeng further emphasised that they could not develop without capacity building, and
that they have offered during the year a lot of training courses on governance
and management, to enhance their knowledge on credit union affairs.
“We
offer capacity building training across the country in terms of supporting
credit unions in The Gambia to ensure that it is safe.”
He
stressed that there was a need to help board members understand their roles,
and the need to help them interpret financial statements to be able to
understand and build their capacity on those issues.
Mr
Jeng also highlighted the challenges that credit unions face, adding that the
major challenge is a lack of understanding of the concepts and principles of
credit union operations.
“Many
of us are yet to appreciate the authentic difference between credit unions and
other financial institutions.”
Most people, he said, think that a credit
union is just like any other association, which is not so as are different from
other micro-finance institutions.
Their
prime objective is to help people safe and fund their own needs from little
resources, adding: “We are not as funding agency, but we support people to gain
their own financial stability from their own resources.”
Mr
Jeng concluded by saying he expected participants to be more critical in the
service they provide, like loan products and what impacts they have done,
adding that they are also expected to draw a social performance plan which they
could live up to.
He
thanked the Irish Aid Foundation for their immense support, and for working
tirelessly with NACCUG for the past 24 years.
“We
are grateful, and we will continue to partner with them for long, as far as
NACCUG is concerned.”
