By Felibien HIRWA Tuza.
The Government of Rwanda and its development partners have been implementing various projects in the financial sector, all aiming at transforming Rwanda into a middle-income country and boosting its economic growth to become a “financial hub by the year 2020”. Microfinance practitioners and stakeholders, who help to lead this endeavor, work tirelessly to maintain the ideal pace of development through executing policies and strategies that the Government has put in place.
These policies have been designed to ensure that demand and supply are balanced among clients and practitioners of financial institutions, hence instilling the culture of equitable mutual responsibilities and financially transforming the country. This can only be achieved if the country and the entire financial sector embrace responsible and inclusive finance.
It is important to note that accessibility, availability and affordability of financial services are core pillars that should be regarded as standards or benchmarks against which the industry should judge the performance of financial service providers while promoting responsible and inclusive finance.
If so – then, how should a financial institution become a top performer in ensuring a vibrant and healthy national economy?
“Only through the compliance with Client Protection Principles” (CPPs), sector experts have revealed.
Since 2016, with the support from the SEEP Network and Smart Campaign, The Association of Microfinance Institutions in Rwanda (AMIR) has been implementing the “Responsible Finance through Local Leadership and Learning” program. Through this four-year project, AMIR hopes to streamline the application of client protection principles across the country.
According to Aimable NKURANGA, the Executive Director of AMIR, by the end of the project, at least two million low income financial consumers will have been reached and will continue to benefit from the positive impact of the application of consumer protection principles in the Microfinance industry. NKURANGA added that to ensure the smooth running and effectiveness of the project, AMIR has defined various approaches to employ such as sector engagement, public awareness and smart assessments for microfinance institutions.
So far, AMIR has conducted different training courses on client protection and a number of microfinance institutions have been assessed.
AMIR and Smart Campaign, with support from the SEEP Network have been enhancing the capacity of the financial industry. One method is using smart assessors to assess Microfinance Institutions and provide technical assistance. In early 2017, a group of 25 sector actors attended the Smart Assessor Training and they were equipped with advanced knowledge and skills in assessing financial institutions and determining the application of the seven client protection principles.
In June 2018, a second training was organized and attended by 26 participants. The trainees included managers of Microfinance Institutions, consultants and staff from AMIR. This smart assessment training is only the first step. the participants will still have to go through a series of practical assessments in order to be accredited and certified as smart assessors by Smart Campaign. After attending the smart assessor training, they will need to participate in assessments as a support assessor. Only after conducting assessments with a lead assessor can they become one themselves and lead a smart assessment. Since this program started, 51 staff/consultants have been trained in smart assessment and over 10 Microfinance institutions have been assessed.
Both trainings were led by Bonnie Brusky. In June 2018, Straton Habyalimana, Senior Program Manager of the RFL3 project served as a co-facilitator with support from Carly Chafey, Program Assistant at the SEEP Network.
About the trainer
Bonnie Brusky is an expert accredited by the Smart Campaign Secretariat. She has over sixteen years consulting experience in microfinance. She specializes in social performance and client – centered research, Bonnie works extensively with Smart Campaign as both a trainer in the Client Protection Principles and Smart Assessment Methodology, as well as assessor and tools development specialist. In addition to her work with the Smart Campaign, she is a senior advisor to the SEEP Network for social performance and consumer protection.
