Social Development Fund (SDF) Wednesday commenced the MEDA Micro-Finance training for TSPs, VISACAs and MFIs, at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi.
The training was organised by the Entrepreneurship Promotion and the Micro-Finance Development Project (EPMDP), under the Social Development Fund.
In his welcoming statement, Sonko Fofana, Fund Manager of SDF, who welcomed participants to the micro-finance training workshop, said: “The training workshop about to commence today comes as part of a consultancy assignment on the assessment of the country micro-finance sector and the delivery of specific capacity building interventions, which was validated by stakeholders in January 2011.”
The objective of the training, facilitated by MEDA - a Canadian firm known globally for its extensive expertise in all areas of micro-finance operations and institutional development, was to further enhance the skills and expertise of practitioners in key areas of micro-finance operation in the Gambia in The Gambia, such as portfolio and delinquency management, interest rate setting, and pricing as a basis for an efficient and effective service delivery.
“It is therefore hoped that this three-day training workshop would be useful in reinforcing the capacities and qualities of micro-finance delivery in the country. I therefore urged all the participants to take this training seriously and give it the full attention it deserves,” he said.
Mr Sonko extended his sincere appreciation to the Government of The Gambia and the African Development Bank for making supporting the training.
For his part, G.W.L. Thomas, Chairman of the Commencement of the Training Session on Micro-Finance best practices for Financial and Technical Services Providers, said the current project being handled by SDF, the dual axes of which are Entrepreneurship Promotion and Micro-finance Development (EPMDP) affords us the opportunity to further equip what human resources we have at our disposal using the in-service training mode.
“It is, therefore, incumbent on us in these days of other resources - financial, material, etc that are becoming increasingly few and far between, to take full advantages of opportunities like this one,” he said.
He hailed the Project Steering Committee, saying: “We hope it would turn out to be a very rewarding capacity-building training session in spite of the limited time at our disposal to attain the objectives we have set ourselves over the few days.”
