Currently there is concrete and great development of the Rwandan microfinance sector in general and its umbrella organization “AMIR”, as one of the best developing microfinance associations in Africa. This was commended by different speakers who made their speeches during the official handover between the outgoing and new AMIR’s Board of Directors (BoD) which took place early this January.
The new board was elected during the 9th General Assembly which took place in December 2016.
As a guest of honor, Apollo Munanura, Director General of the Rwanda Cooperative Agency (RCA), emphasized the strong relation between the microfinance and the cooperative sector. Among others, he also outlined the necessity of excellent customer care as one of the remaining challenges and a key success factor for sustainable microfinance services.
AMIR in particular and the sector in general have made tremendous improvement, and without doubt, this was achieved thanks not only to the efforts of AMIR Board – staff – members but also to the commitment of AMIR partners (…)”
This statement was made by the outgoing chairman of the outgoing board who promised that (if need be) the outgoing board will avail itself whenever deemed necessary, for providing any support to the sector and to the incoming board of directors.
According to the outgoing chairman, there are a number of achievements that the sector has recorded so far, and, of which the microfinance practitioners should be proud. These are:
- The establishment of an economic arm of AMIR;
- AMIR has acquired its own building/ office;
- At national level, the challenges met in 2015 such as high ratio of nonperforming loans were identified by the research on the causes of Non-Performing conducted by AMIR in May 2015 and addressed accordingly;
- AMIR has seen tremendous increase of staff members due to increased confidence of stakeholders in its operations “efficiency” which in turn helps AMIR to win more projects.
- AMIR currently has 342 members and 15 permanent staff members qualified and experienced;
At the official handover event, the speech and promises made by the new elected chairman, show readiness and commitment of the AMIR leaders to transform the sector – the sector is recording incredible achievements in the near future.
Jules Theonest NDAHAYO is the new chairman of board of directors, in his remarks, he emphasized the following areas on which AMIR will put much efforts and focus:
- Advocacy for taxes, security registration, and laws that favor MF sector;
- Innovations- IT shared platform, agency banking, product development;
- AMIR sustainability –kwishakamo ibisubizo (self-reliance) – through shared services and philosophy behind it;
- Research and performance monitoring to ensure that AMIR makes data available for business decision making;
- Responsible Finance including Financial education and consumer protection;
- Working closely with all stakeholders to reduce non-performing loans
- Strategic alliances.
Considering the above, one may assert that the sector is to be developed through the new strategies – new perspectives – new promises – new hope by the new board of directors
