Cebu City hosts microfinance confab

CEBU – Cebu City hosted the 1st Microfinance Best Practices forum yesterday amid the current global economic turmoil that has rocked major financial institutions worldwide.

Presidential Management Staff director-general Sec. Cerge M. Remonde delivered the keynote address before over 50 industry leaders and managers from the Visayas and Mindanao who joined the forum, which carried the theme “Microfinance in Times of Crisis.”

The activity focused on being able to cope with the current economic environment and other developments that affect various sectors and sought to generate enough knowledge to help the microfinance institutions prepare themselves for any eventuality.

Among the objectives of the forum is to gain understanding on how the macro trends and conditions are affecting the poor and on where the trends and situations are heading as well as to determine what can be done to prepare the people and institutions in times of crisis.

The forum started with information sharing by resource speakers on the national and global trends and how these trends affect everyone in order to provide MFIs with a macro view from the top.

In the afternoon, workshops were conducted to discuss trends from below tackling on how MFI clients behave and MFIs reaction.

The workshop also covered how clients have coped and how MFIs adjust in crisis conditions. This allowed the sharing of observations and practices that have been successful in dealing with crisis situations.

The plenary session and synthesis pieced together and showed the entire picture while the lessons learned from the workshop were used as inputs in drawing out strategies and action plans that MFIs may use.

The Mindanao Microfinance Council, in cooperation with the Visayas Association of Microfinance Institution, organized the forum.

The MMC is a network organization of 41 mainstream MFIs in Mindanao composed of rural banks, non-government organizations, cooperatives and cooperative banks with the aim of reducing poverty in the region. — Niña Chrismae G. Sumacot/WAB (THE FREEMAN)