Management Development Training of Trainers Workshop underway

Women’s World Banking, in partnership with Gambia Women’s Financial Association (GAWFA), recently organised a five-day training workshop on Management Development Training of Trainers.

The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation funded the event held at the Sheraton Hotel in Brufut.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GAWFA,Oley Njie-Mbye, said leadership is often mixed with management.

She said that one can exhibit leadership without being in management and that “good leadership is first about behaviour and second about skills.”

“We live in a rapid changing world that is yet to be discerned; therefore,” she continued, “you must be flexible and adapt well to changes and many paradigm shifts”.

The GAWFA boss noted further: “You should therefore be able to wear different hats everyday and embrace both leadership and management skills with trust, integrity, diversity and respect for all.”

Leadership is about good governance, she says: “You can look for leadership through many dimensions: social, political, household, peers and society in general, as long as it is embodied in good governance.”

For his part, the CEO of Africa Microfinance Network, Davy Serge Azakpama, said Africa Microfinance Network is currently an association of 22 country-level microfinance network in Africa (AFMIN).

It therefore represents more than 1,000 MFIS serving over 18 million productive poor clients.

“The mission of AFMIN is to contribute to the provision of effective and sustainable finance services to low-income population of Africa,” Mr Serge Azakpama said.

AFMIN aims to support country level network and MFIS, to achieve their mission objectives, and to help improve the microfinance environment in Africa and globally.

According to Ebrima Jawara, project coordinator of the Rural Finance Project of the Ministry of Agriculture, millions of dollars have been spent in supporting these institutions, adding that they would continue to strengthen them in a holistic manner.

The training of trainers course is designed to help middle-level managers in microfinance institutions to clarify their roles and responsibilities and to improve their strategy thinking through practical exercise based on technical knowledge in microfinance.

Mr Jawara said: “The workshop will go according to plan and, even more importantly, that the participants will be able to apply their new skills and knowledge among their colleagues and the rural people, especially the women, after the training.”

He thanked the Women’s World Banking for conducting the training, and welcomed all the participants, especially those from overseas, on behalf of his ministry.

The workshop brought together 21 participants from different institutions and the management teams from the Women’s World Banking (WWB) Citigroup, key among who are Elizabeth Iynch, manager of Centre for Microfinance Leadership, WWB, Mahmood Shamsher, Sarah Buitoni and Maria Sancha.